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PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



American Forest Congress 

Held at Washington, D. C, January 2 to 6, 1905, 
under the auspices of the 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



Published for the Association 
by the 

H. M. SUTER PUBLISHING COMPANY 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 

1905 



^\ 



\ 



r^^' 



Gift. 
2 0'05 ^ 



PREFACE 



The American Forest Congress, the proceedings of 
which make up this volume, was held at Washington, 
D. C, January 2 to 6, 1905, under the auspices of the 
American Forestry Association. The purpose of this 
Congress, as stated in the official call, was "to estab- 
lish a broader understanding of the forest in its rela- 
tion to the great industries depending upon it; to 
advance the conservative use of forest resources for 
both the present and future need of these industries; 
to stimulate and unite all efforts to perpetuate the 
forest as a permanent resource of the nation." 

That the time was ripe for such a meeting was 
proven by the splendid attendance, both in numbers 
and personnel, from every section of the country. 
From its inception the plan for the Congress had the 
approval of the President of the United States, as well 
as many of the most prominent persons in the official 
and industrial life of the country. As a result the 
American Forest Congress turned out to be not only 
the most important meeting ever devoted to forestry 
in the United States, but one of the most influential 
gatherings that has given its attention to an economic 
subject. It is not too much to say that from the date 
of this Congress forestry has come to have a new 
meaning to the American people. 

It was the wish of the delegates that, in view of the 
very comprehensive treatment of the subject of forestry 
at the several sessions of the Congress, that the pro- 
ceedings should be collected in permanent form, which 
explains the making of this volume. The plan fol- 



IV PREFACE 



lowed in its compilation has not been to produce a ver- 
batim report of the several sessions of the Congress, 
but to collect the full list of papers read and the more 
important impromptu addresses into convenient form 
for reading and ready reference. 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CONGRESS 

Monorars Ipreeident, 
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 

pteaiDent of tbe Congress, 

HON. JAMES WILSON 



Committee of Hrrangements, 



James Wilson, 

Secretary of Agriculture. 
A. J. Cassatt, 

President, Pennsylvania Rail- 
road. 
Howard Elliott, 

President, Northern Pacific Ry. 
John Hays Hammond, 

Mining Engineer. 
T. J. Grier, 

Supt. Homestake Mining Co., 
Lead, S. Dak. 
Fred Weyerhaeuser, 

St. Paul, Minn. 
N. W. McLeod, 

President, Nat'l Lumber Manu- 
facturers Association. 
V, H. Beckman, 

Editor, Pacific Lumber Trade 
Journal. 
R. A. Long, 

President, Southern Lumber 
Manufacturers Association. 
George K. Smith, 

Secretary, Nat'l Lumber Manu- 
facturers Association. 
Garret Schenck, 

President, Great Northern Paper 
Co. 
Thomas F. Walsh, 

President, National Irriga*^^ion 
Association. 
H. B. F. Macfarland, 

President, Board of District Com- 
missioners. 
W. S. Harvey, 

Vice - President, Pennsylvania 
Forestry Association. 
John Joy Edson, 

President, Washington Loan & 
Trust Co. 



Albert Shaw, 

Editor, Review oj Reviews. 
Whitelaw Reid, 

Publisher, New York Tribune. 
Redfield Proctor, 

United States Senator from Ver- 
mont. 
Henry C. Hansb rough, 

United States Senator from North 
Dakota. 
Nathan B. Scott, 

United States Senator from West 
Virginia. 
Thomas R. Bard, 

United States Senator from Cali- 
fornia. 
James W. Wadsworth, 

Member of Congress from New 
York. 
John F. Lacey, 

Member of Congress from Iowa. 
Frank W. Mondell, 

Member of Congress from Wyo- 
ming. 
Charles D. Walcott, 

Director, U, S. Geological Survey. 

GiFFORD PINCHOT, 

Forester, U. S. Department of 
Agriculture. 
F. H. Newell, 

Chief Engineer, U. S. Reclama- 
tion Service. 
George H. Maxwell, 

Executive Chairman, The Na- 
tional Irrigation Association. 
B. L. Wiggins, 

Vice-chancellor, University of 
the South. 
George P. Whittlesey, 

Director, American Forestry As- 
sociation. 



VI 



ORGANIZATION OF THE CONGRESS 



F. J. Hagenbarth, 

President, National Live Stock 
Association. 
Jesse Smith, 

President, Utah Wool Growers' 
Association. 
H. A. Jasteo, 

General Supt., Kern County Land 
Co., California. 

E. S. GOSNEY, 

Manager, Gosney & Perkins 
Bank, Flagstaff, Ariz. 
W. A. Richards, 

Commissioner, General Land Of- 
fice. 
B. T. Galloway, 

Chief, Bureau of Plant Industry. 
Overton W. Price, 

Associate Forester, Bureau of 
Forestry. 



H. S. Graves, 

Director, Yale Forest School. 
FiLiBERT Roth, 

Director, Forestry Department 
University of Michigan. 

F. V. COVILLE, 

Botanist, U. S. Department of 
Agriculture. 

Wm. L. Hall, 

Ass' t Forester, Bureau of Forestry 

James B, Adams, 

In charge of Records, Bureau of 
Forestry. 
Hermann von Schrenk, 

Expert, Bureau of Forestry. 

H. M. SUTER, 

Editor, Forestry and Irrigation. 
C. J. Blanchard, 

Statistician, U. S. Reclamation 
Service. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 
FORESTRY AS A NATIONAL QUESTION 

The; Forest in the Life oe a Nation 3 

President Roosevelt. 
The Generae Need of Forest Preservation 13 

James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture. 
The Forest Policy of France 22 

J. J. Jusserand, Ambassador from France. 
Attitude of Educational Institutions Toward Forestry 29 

B. ly. Wiggins, Vice-Chancellor, University of the 
South. 
Importance of the Forests to Agriculture 42 

John Lamb, Member of Congress from Virginia. 
Dependence of Business Interests Upon the Forests. . 51 

Howard Elliott, President, Northern Pacific 
Railroad. 



PART II. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE PUBLIC FOREST LANDS 
TO IRRIGATION. 

The Close Relation Between Forestry and Irrigation 53 

Guy E. Mitchell. 
Forests and Reservoirs 60 

F. H. Newell. 
Relation of Forest Cover to Streamflow dj 

J. B. Lippincott. 
Rights of Way in Forest Reserves 81 

Morris Bien. 



viii Contents 

Irrigation Construction and Timbe;r Supplies 87 

Arthur P. Davis. 

Impromptu Addresses: 

H. M. Wilson 91 

J. W. Tourney 93 



PART III. 
THE LUMBER INDUSTRY AND THE FORESTS. 

The Lumberman's Interest in Forestry 99 

N. W. McLeod. 
Changed Attitude of Lumbermen Toward Forestry. ... 103 

J. E. Defebaugh. 
Is Forestry Practicable on Long Leaf Pine Lands? 124 

John L. Kaul. 
Is Forestry Practicable in the Northwest? 132 

Victor H. Beckman. 
Interest of Lumbermen in Conservative Forestry 137 

F. E. Weyerhaeuser. 
Importance of Forestry to Woodworking Industries... 142 

M. C. Moore. 
Is Forestry Practicable in the Northeast? 147 

John A. Dix. 
Our Pacific Coast Forests and Lumbering as Differ- 
ing from Other Forests i53 

George P. Emerson. 
Rise in Value of Stumpage 163 

James T. Barber. 
Importance of Lumber Statistics 166 

George K. Smith. 
Opportunities for Lumbering in the Philippines i73 

George P. Ahern. 
The Lumber Dealers' Interest in Forest Preservation 189 

George W. Hotchkiss. 
Cooperage and Its Relation to Forestry i94 

John A. McCann. 



Contents ix 

PART IV. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE PUBLIC FOREST LANDS. TO 
GRAZING. 

Practical Results of the Regulation oe Grazing in 

THE Forest Reserves 210 

A. F. Potter. 
The Protection oe Home Builders in the Regulation oe 

Grazing on Forest Reserves 218 

E. S. Gosney. 
The Advantage oe Cooperation Between the Govern- 
ment and the Live Stock Associations in the 

Regulation and Control oe Grazing 228 

Fred P. Johnson. 
Necessity oe Using the Forest Reserves eor Grazing 

Purposes 232 

Francis E. Warren. 
Sheep Grazing in the Forest Reserves, From a Lay- 
man's Standpoint 242 

L. H. Pammel. 

Impromptu Address 249 

R. H. Campbell. 



PART V. 

RAILROADS IN RELATION TO THE FOREST. 

What Information is Most Urgently Needed by Rail- 
roads Regarding Timber Resources 253 

Charles F. Manderson. 
Work oe the Pennsylvania Railroad in Planting Tim- 
ber EOR Cross Ties 260 

Joseph T. Richards. 
Is IT Practicable eor Railroads to Hold Forest Lands 

EOR Future Supplies oe Timber.^ 265 

L. E. Johnson. 



X Conte:nts 

Results in the Preservative Treatment oi^ Raii^road 

Timbers to Prolong Durability 276 

Herman von Schrenk. 
Letter Erom Mr. James J. Hill 290 

PART VI. 

IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC FOREST LANDS TO 
MINING. 

The Development oe Water Power as Related to 

Forest Reserves 293 

A. L. Fellows. 
Will the Administration oe the Forest Reserves on 
A Conservative Basis Retard the Develop- 
ment OE Mining.^ 302 

Seth Bullock. 
Importance oe the Public Forest Lands to Mining 307 

T. J. Grier. 
Mining in the Forest Reserves 318 

F. A. Fenn. 
The Value oe Forestry to Commercial Interests ZZ'^ 

George H. Maxwell. 
Impromptu Address 349 

David T. Day. 

PART VII. 

NATIONAL AND STATE FOREST POLICY. 

Work of the Bureau oe Forestry 355 

Overton W. Price. 
Work of the Geological Survey in Mapping the 

Reserves 364 

Charles D. Walcott. 
Work of the General Land Office in the Administra- 
tion OF the Reserves 381 

W. A. Richards. 



Contents xi 

A Federal Forest Service 391 

Gifford Piiichot. 

Progress in Forest Reservation in Pennsylvania 396 

J. T. Rothrock. 

Impromptu Addresses : 

John Lacy 403 

W. A. Reeder 409 

Edward Everett Hale 412 

W. S. Harvey 413 

Aubrey White 419 

B. E. Fernow 424 

Mrs. L. P. WilHams 428 

Filibert Roth 435 

C. A. Schenck 437 

Rutherford P. Hayes 439 

EHhu Stewart 442 

G. O. Shields 444 

Charles h. Pack 446 

Resolutions 448 

List oe Delegates 454 

Announcement of American Forestry Association.... 473 



PART I. 

FORESTRY AS A NATIONAL QUESTION. 



THE FOREST IN THE LIFE OF A 
NATION 

BY 

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 

IT IS a pleasure to greet all of you here this 
afternoon, but, of course, especially the members 
of the American Forest Congress. You have made, 
by your coming, a meeting which is without parallel 
in the history of forestry. And, Mr. Secretary, I 
must take this opportunity of saying to you what you 
so amply deserve, that no man in this country has 
done so much as you have done in the last eight years 
to make it possible to take a business view from the 
standpoint of all the country of just such ques- 
tions as this. It is not many years since such 
a meeting as this would have been regarded as 
chimerical ; the thought of it would have been regarded 
as absolutely chimerical. In the old pioneer days the 
American had but one thought about a tree, and that 
was to cut it down; and the mental attitude of the 
nation toward the forests was largely conditioned upon 
the fact that the life work of the earlier generations 
of our people had been of necessity to hew down the 
forests, for they had to make clearings on which to 
live ; and it was not until half a century of our national 
life had passed that any considerable body of American 
citizens began to live under conditions where the tree 
ceased to be something to be cleared off the earth. 



4 Proce:e:dings of the 

It always takes time to get the mind of a people 
accustomed to any change in conditions, and it took 
a long time to get the mind of our people, as a whole, 
accustomed to the fact that they had to alter their 
attitude toward the forests. For the first time the 
great business and the forest interests of the nation 
have joined together, through delegates altogether 
worthy of the organizations they represent, to consider 
their individaul and their common interests in the 
forest. This Congress may well be called a meeting 
of forest users, for that the users of the forest come 
together to consider how best to combine use with 
preservation is the significant fact of the meeting, the 
fact full of powerful promise for the forests of the 
future. 

The producers, the manufacturers, and the great 
common carriers of the nation had long failed to 
realize their true and vital relation to the great forests 
of the United States, and the forests and industries 
both suffered from that failure. The suffering of the 
industries in such case comes after the destruction 
of the forests, but it is just as inevitable as that 
destruction. If the forest is destroyed it is only a 
question of a relatively short time before the business 
interests suffer in consequence. All of you know 
that there is opportunity in any new country for the 
development of the type of temporary inhabitant whose 
idea is to skin the country and go somewhere else. 
You all know, and especially those of you from the 
West, the individual whose idea of developing the 
country is to cut every stick of timber off of it and 
then leave a barren desert for the homemaker who 
comes in after him. That man is a curse and not a 
blessing to the country. The prop of the country 
must be the business man who intends so to run his 



Ame^rican Forest Congress 5 

business that it will be profitable for his children 
after him. That is the type of business that it is 
worth while to develop. The time of indifference and 
misunderstanding has gone by. 

Your coming is a very great step toward the solution 
of the forest problem — a problem which cannot be 
settled until it is settled right. And it cannot be settled 
right until the forces which bring that settlement about 
come, not from the Government, not even from the 
newspapers and from public sentiment in general, but 
from the active, intelligent, and effective interest of 
the men to whom the forest is important from the 
business point of view, because they use it and its 
product, and whose interest is therefore concrete 
instead of general and diffuse. I do not in the least 
underrate the power of an awakened public opinion; 
but in the final test it will be the attitude of the 
industries of the country which more than anything 
else will determine whether or not our forests are to 
be preserved. It is because of their recognition of 
that prime material fact that so much has been accom- 
plished, Mr. Wilson, by those interested under you 
and in the other departments of the Government in 
the preservation of the forests. We want the active 
and zealous help of every man farsighted enough to 
realize the importance from the standpoint of the 
nation's welfare in the future of preserving the forests ; 
but that help by itself will not avail. It will not even 
be the main factor in bringing about the result toward 
which we are striving ; the main factor must come from 
the intelligence of the business interests concerned, so 
that the manufacturer, the railway man, the miner, 
the lumberman, the dealer in lumber, shall appreciate 
that it is of direct interest to them to preserve through 
use instead of waste the great resources upon which 



6 Proc^e:dings o^ the: 

they depend for the successful development of their 
business. This is true because by far the greater part 
of all our forests must pass into the hands of forest 
users, whether directly or through the Government, 
which will continue to hold some of them but only as 
trustee. The forest is for use, and its users will decide 
its future. It was only a few years ago that the 
practical lumberman felt that the forest expert was a 
man who wished to see the forests preserved as bric-a- 
brac, and the American business man was not prepared 
to do much from the bric-a-brac standpoint. Now I 
think we have got a working agreement between the 
forester and the business man whose business is the 
use of the forest. We have got them to come together 
with the understanding that they must work for a 
common end — work to see the forest preserved for 
use. The great significance of this Congress comes 
from the fact that henceforth the movement for the 
conservative use of the forest is to come mainly from 
within, not from without; from the men who are 
actively interested in the use of the forest in one way 
or another, even more than from those whose interest 
is philanthropic and general. The difference means, 
as the difference in such a case always does mean, to 
a large extent the difference between mere agitation 
and actual execution, between the hope of accomplish- 
ment and the thing done. We believe that at last 
forces have been set in motion which will convert the 
once distant prospect of the conservation of the forest 
by wise use into the practical accomplishment of that 
great end ; and of this most hopeful and significant fact 
the coming together of this Congress is the sufficient 
proof. 

I shall not pretend this afternoon to even describe 
to you the place of the forest in the life of any nation. 



American Forest Congress 7 

and especially of its place in the United States. The 
great industries of agriculture, transportation, mining, 
grazing, and, of course, lumbering, are each one of 
them vitally and immediately dependent upon wood, 
water, or grass from the forest. The manufacturing 
industries, whether or not wood enters directly into 
their finished product, are scarcely, if at all, less 
dependent upon the forest than those whose connection 
with it is obvious and direct. Wood is an indispensable 
part of the material structure upon which civilization 
rests; and it is to be remembered always that the 
immense increase of the use of iron and substitutes for 
wood in many structures, while it has meant a relative 
decrease in the amount of wood used, has been accom- 
panied by an absolute increase in the amount of wood 
used. More wood is used than ever before in our 
history. Thus, the consumption of wood in shipbuild- 
ing is far larger than it was before the discovery of the 
art of building iron ships, because vastly more ships 
are built. Larger supplies of building lumber are 
required, directly or indirectly, for use in the construc- 
tion of the brick and steel and stone structures of great 
modern cities than were consumed by the compara- 
tively few and comparatively small wooden buildings 
in the earlier stages of these same cities. It is as sure 
as anything can be that we will see in the future a 
steadily increasing demand for wood in our manufac- 
turing industries. 

There is one point I want to speak about in addition 
to the uses of the forest to which I have already 
alluded. Those of us who have lived on the great 
plains, who are acquainted with the conditions in parts 
of Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas, 
know that wood forms an immensely portentous ele- 
ment in helping the farmer on these plains battle 



8 Procejkdings O^ TH^ 

against his worst enemy — wind. The use of forests 
as windbreaks out on the plains, where the tree does 
not grow unless men help it, is of enormous impor- 
tance, and, Mr. Wilson, among the many services 
performed by the public-spirited statesman who once 
occupied the position that you now hold, none was 
greater than what the late Secretary of Agriculture, 
Mr. Morton, did in teaching, by actual example as 
well as by precept, the people of the treeless regions 
the immense advantage of the cultivation of trees. 
When wood, dead or alive, is demanded in so 
many ways, and when this demand will undoubt- 
edly increase, it is a fair question, then, whether the 
vast demands of the future upon our forests are likely 
to be met. You are mighty poor Americans if your 
care for the well-being of this country is limited to 
hoping that that well-being will last out your own 
generation. No man, here or elsewhere, is entitled 
to call himself a decent citizen if he does not try to do 
his part toward seeing that our national policies are 
shaped for the advantage of our children and our 
children's children. Our country, we have faith 
to believe, is only at the beginning of its growth. 
Unless the forests of the United States can be 
made ready to meet the vast demands which this 
growth will inevitably bring, commercial disaster, that 
means disaster to the whole country, is inevitable. 
The railroads must have ties, and the general opinion 
is that no efficient substitute for wood for this purpose 
has been devised. The miner must have timber or he 
cannot operate his mine, and in very many cases the 
profit which mining yields is directly proportionate to 
the cost of timber supply. The farmer, east and west, 
must have timber for numberless uses on his farm, and 
he must be protected, by forest cover upon the head- 



American Forkst Congress 9 

waters of the streams he uses, against floods in the 
East and the lack of water for irrigation in the West, 
The stockman must have fence posts, and very often 
he must have summer range for his stock in the 
national forest reserves. In a word, both the pro- 
duction of the great staples upon which our prosperity 
depends, and their movement in commerce throughout 
the United States, are inseparably dependent upon the 
existence of permanent and suitable supplies from the 
forest at a reasonable cost. 

If the present rate of forest destruction is allowed to 
continue, with nothing to offset it, a timber famine in 
the future is inevitable. Fire, wasteful and destructive 
forms of lumbering, and the legitimate use, taken 
together, are destroying our forest resources far more 
rapidly than they are being replaced. It is difficult 
to imagine what such a timber famine would mean to 
our resources. And the period of recovery from the 
injuries which a timber famine would entail would be 
measured by the slow growth of the trees themselves. 
Remember, that you can prevent such a timber famine 
occurring by wise action taken in time, but once the 
famine occurs there is no possible way of hurrying the 
growth of the trees necessary to relieve it. You have 
got to act in time or else the nation would have to 
submit to prolonged suffering after it had become too 
late for forethought to avail. Fortunately, the remedy 
is a simple one, and your presence here to-day is a 
most encouraging sign that there will be such fore- 
thought. It is the great merit of the Department of 
Agriculture in the forest work that its efforts have 
been directed to enlist the sympathy and cooperation 
of the users of wood, water, and grass, and to show 
that forestry will and does pay, rather than to exhaust 
itself in the futile attempt to introduce conservative 



lo Proceedings of the 

methods by any other means. I beheve most emphat- 
ically in sentiment, but I want the sentiment to be put 
into cooperation with the business interests, and that 
is what is being done. The policy is one of helpfulness 
throughout, and never of hostility or coercion toward 
any legitimate interest whatever. In the very nature 
of things it can make little progress apart from you. 
Whatever it may be possible for the Government to 
accomplish, its work must ultimately fail unless your 
interest and support give it permanence and power. It 
is only as the producing and commercial interests of 
the country come to realize that they need to have trees 
growing up in the forest no less than they need the 
product of the trees cut down, that we may hope to 
see the permanent prosperity of both safely secured. 

This statement is true not only as to forests in 
private ownership, but as to the national forests as 
well. Unless the men from the West believe in forest 
preservation the western forests cannot be preserved. 
We here at the headquarters of the National Govern- 
ment recognize that absolutely. We believe, we know, 
that it is essential for the well-being of the people of 
the states of the great plains, the states of the Rockies, 
the states of the Pacific slope, that the forests shall be 
preserved, and we know also that our belief will count 
for nothing unless the people of those states themselves 
wish to preserve the forests. If they do we can help 
materially; we can direct their efforts, but we cannot 
save the forests unless they wish them to be saved. 

I ask, with all the intensity that I am capable, that 
the men of the West will remember the sharp distinc- 
tion I have just drawn between the man who 
skins the land and the man who develops the 
country. I am going to work with, and only with, 
the man who develops the country. I am against the 



American Forest Congre:ss h 

land skinner every time. Our policy is consistent to 
give to every portion of the public domain its highest 
possible amount of use, and, of course, that can be 
given only through the hearty cooperation of the west- 
ern people. 

I would like to add one word as to the creation of a 
national forest service which I have recommended 
repeatedly in messages to Congress, and especially in 
my last. I wish to see all the forest work of the 
Government concentrated in the Department of 
Agriculture. It is folly to scatter such work, 
as I have said over and over again, and the policy 
which this administration is trying to carry out through 
the creation of such a service is that of making the 
national forests more actively and more permanently 
useful to the people of the West, and I am heartily 
glad to know that the western sentiment supports more 
and more vigorously the policy of setting aside national 
forests, the creation of a national forest service, and 
especially the policy of increasing the permanent use- 
fulness of these forest lands to all who come in contact 
with them. With what is rapidly getting to be a 
practically unbroken sentiment in the West behind 
such a forest policy, with what is rapidly getting to be 
a practically unbroken support by the great staple 
interests behind the general policy of the conservative 
use of the forests, we have a right to feel that we have 
entered on an era of great and lasting progress. Only 
entered upon it ; much, very much, remains to be done ; 
and as in every other department of human activity 
our debt of gratitude will be due, not to the amiable 
but shortsighted optimist who thinks you have made a 
good beginning and the end may take care of itself; 
still less to the man who sits at one side and says how 
poorly the work is being done by those who are doing 



12 Proceedings o^ the 

it; but to the men who try, each in his own place, 
practically to forward this great work. That is the 
type of man who is going to do the work, and it is 
because I believe that we have enlisted the active, 
practical sympathy of just that kind of man in this 
work that I believe the future of this policy to be bright 
and the permanence of our timber supplies more nearly 
assured than at any previous time in our history. To 
the men represented in this Congress this great result 
is primarily due. 

In closing I wish to thank you who are here, not 
merely for what you are doing in this particular move- 
ment, but for the fact that you are illustrating what 
I hope I may call the typically American method of 
meeting questions of great and vital importance to the 
nation — the method of seeing whether the individuals 
particularly concerned cannot by getting together and 
cooperating with the Government do infinitely more 
for themselves than it would be possible for any gov- 
ernment under the sun to do for them. I believe in 
the future of this movement, because I think you have 
the right combination of qualities — the quality of 
individual initiative, the quality of individual resource- 
fulness, combined with the quality that enables you 
to come together for mutual help, and having so come 
to work with the Government ; and I pledge you in the 
fullest measure the support of the Government in what 
you are doing. 



THE GENERAL NEED OF FOREST 
PRESERVATION 

BY 
JAMES WILSON 

Secretary of Agriculture and Piesident of the American Forest Congress 

I MAKE you welcome to the Federal seat of Gov- 
^ ernment, to consider the state of our forests, and 
of our lands that cry aloud for want of trees and the 
peculiar forest conditions that cannot exist without 
their presence. 

Forestry is not a local question. It is as wide as 
American jurisdiction. It is not a class question; it 
affects everybody. It is not limited by latitude or 
longitude, by State lines or thermal lines, by rivers 
or mountain ranges, by seas or lakes. 

Steel has taken the place of wood for fencing to a 
large extent. It has taken the place of wood for ships 
to some extent, it is being introduced in house-building, 
and is replacing wood extensively in the making of 
machinery and for other purposes. Coal and gas are 
taking the place of wood as fuel, and cement is taking 
its place for building. The use of wood, notwithstand- 
ing these substitutes, increases every year and our 
forests steadily vanish before the axeman. 

The extension of railroads, the settlement of the 
public domain, the building of cities, towns and vil- 
lages, the use of wood in paper-making and the open- 
ing of mines, call for more wood every year, and the 
forests respond to the demand. There are but a few 
large reserves left from which to draw supplies. The 
extreme east, the extreme west, and the Gulf coast are 
now sources of commercial supply. The industries 



14 Prockkdings of the 

of our country will be carried on at greater expense 
as wood becomes scarcer and its substitutes become 
dearer. Agriculture, commerce and mining will great- 
ly miss the cheap supply of wood to which they have 
been accustomed. 

The nation is awakening to the necessity of planting 
trees and making the most of those that are mature. 
Our institutions of learning are taking up the study 
of forestry. State societies are inquiring. The ex- 
periment stations of the several States and Territories 
are making research. The Department of Agriculture 
is training a Bureau of forest experts in woodcraft 
to serve the nation, the States, companies and indi- 
viduals along forestry lines. 

There are hopeful forestry signs : 

A disposition among lumber companies to hold cut- 
over lands, protect them from fire, encourage a new 
growth, and harvest the young forest, requires the es- 
tablishment of forestry schools in colleges and univer- 
sities where the science of forestry is being taught in 
the light of experience. 

The employment of foresters by large private own- 
ers, who find that educated supervision is a prime 
necessity. 

Reforesting of large areas is being carried on by the 
Bureau of Forestry and by several States, for the 
purpose of giving object lessons to our people with 
regard to methods of planting and varieties of trees. 
The farmer is inquiring and planting for wind-breaks, 
fuel, and in many cases he is planting valuable varieties 
for coming generations. 

Scientific study is preparing a reliable foundation 
for practical forestry, with regard to the principles 
that govern the life of trees in diflferent conditions of 
soil and climate. 

Cooperation between the Department of Agriculture 



Ame:rican Fore:st Congress 15 

and the States, and with companies and individuals, 
is progressing rapidly. Our trained foresters are get- 
ting into touch with the college and experiment station 
forces of the States, with companies that hold wood- 
land for present and future use, and with individuals. 

The Congress is giving liberally to forest research, 
enabling us to do systematic work with wood in all its 
uses. 

The future requires planting in the uplands, at the 
sources of all our streams, that should never be de- 
nuded, to make the hills store water against times of 
drouth and to modify the flooding of the lowlands. 
We have to tell the people of the lower Mississippi 
every few years to raise their levees to hold the floods 
that exceed themselves as the forest ceases to hold 
waters that in previous years were directed into the 
hills and held back. 

Every tree is beautiful, every grove is pleasant, and 
every forest is grand; the planting and care of trees 
is exhilarating and a pledge of faith in the future; 
but these aesthetic features, though elevating, are inci- 
dental; the people need wood. They have had it in 
abundance and have been prodigal in its use, as we 
are too often careless of blessings that seem to have 
no end. Our history, poetry and romance are inti- 
mately associated with the woods. Our industries 
have developed more rapidly because we have had 
plenty of cheap timber. Millions of acres of bare 
hillsides, that produce nothing profitably, should be 
growing trees. 

We are beginning a meeting which is national in 
its significance. Never before in this country, nor 
so far I know in any other country, has a body of men 
representing such great and varied interests come to- 
gether to discuss, temperately and foresightedly, the 
policy and the methods under which the highest per- 



i6 Proce:e:dings o^ the 

manent usefulness of the forest can be maintained. 
That we, men as varied in our occupations as are the 
industries and interests we represent, are drawn to- 
gether by this common cause, may well mark the 
beginning of a new era in our treatment of the forest. 
Your presence here is itself the best possible proof 
that forestry is rapidly taking its appropriate place as 
an active and indispensable factor in the national 
economy. The era of forest agitation alone has en- 
tirely passed. We are talking less and doing more. 
The forest problem, as President Roosevelt has de- 
scribed it, is recognized as the most vital internal 
problem in the United States, and we are at work upon 
it. 

Free discussion here will aid greatly towards the 
best solution of this problem. Above all, this Con- 
gress affords us an opportunity to formulate a forest 
policy broad enough to cover all minor points of differ- 
ence, but definite and clear cut enough to give force 
and direction to the great movement behind it. In the 
very nature of things, these minor points of difference 
will continue to exist; and this is necessary for the 
highest effectiveness of our forest work in the long 
run. But we are facing a problem which can be met 
squarely only by vigorous and united action. 

I look for excellent results from the deliberations 
of this Congress, for more light upon vexed questions, 
and for the statement of new and useful points of view. 
But above all, I hope from our meeting here there 
will come a more complete awakening to the vastness 
of our common interest in the forest, a wider under- 
standing of the great problem before us, and a still 
more active and more earnest spirit of cooperation. 

Because of your individual achievement in your 
chosen fields this is a great gathering and a most 



Ame:rican Forest Congress 17 

effective one. It is upon you and others like you that 
the future of our forests mainly depends. Unless 
you, who represent the business interests of the coun- 
try, take hold and help, forestry can be nothing but 
an exotic, a purely Government enterprise, outside our 
industrial life, and insignificant in its influence upon 
the life of the nation. With your help, it will become, 
and is becoming, one of the greater powers for good. 
Without forestry, the permanent prosperity of the in- 
dustries you represent is impossible, because a perma- 
nent supply of wood and water can come only from 
the wise use of the forest, and in no other way, and 
that supply you must have. 

I am glad to see the irrigation interests so strongly 
represented here, because forestry and irrigation go 
hand in hand in the agricultural development of the 
West. The West must have water, and that in a sure 
and permanent supply. Unless the forests at the head- 
waters of the streams used in irrigation are protected, 
that is impossible, and irrigation will fail. Unless 
we practice forestry in the mountain forests of the 
West, the expenditure under the national irrigation 
law will be fruitless, and the wise policy of the Gov- 
ernment in the agricultural development of the arid 
regions will utterly fail. Without forestry, national 
irrigation will be merely a national mistake. The re- 
lation in the arid regions between the area under 
forest and the area in farms will always be constant. 
We can maintain the present water supply of the 
West by the protection of existing forests. In exactly 
the same way, we can increase this supply by the for- 
esting of denuded watersheds. The full development 
of the irrigation policy requires more than the protec- 
tion of existing forests — it demands their extension 
also. 



i8 Proce:i:dings o^ the: 

In the value of its invested capital and its product, 
lumbering ranks fourth among our great industries. 
But in its relation to the forest it stands first. To 
bring the lumberman and the forester together has 
been the earnest and constant endeavor of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. Ten years ago, or even five 
years ago, we did not fully understand each other. 
To-day, in every great forest region in the United 
States, lumbermen and foresters are working together 
in active, hearty, and effective cooperation on the same 
ground. 

It is true that the area under conservative forest 
management is still small, but the leaven is working 
and the inauguration of new, more conservative, and 
better paying methods has fully begun. What the 
general adoption of conservative lumbering will mean 
to the individual lumberman, to the lumber industry, 
and to the country as a whole, is beyond estimate. 
And it is coming, because it will pay. 

The vast area of the timber lands of the United 
States is mainly in your hands. You have it in your 
power, by putting forestry into effect upon the lands 
you own and control, to make the lumber industry 
permanent, and you will lose nothing by it. If you 
do not, then the lumber industry will go the way of 
the buffalo and the placer mines of the Sierra Nevada. 
But I anticipate no such result. For the fact is that 
practical forestry is being adopted by American lum- 
bermen. In its results it will surpass the forestry 
practiced in any other country. The development 
of practical forestry for the private owner has been 
more rapid here than in any other country, and I look 
for a final achievement better than any that has been 
reached elsewhere. 

The regulation of grazing upon the public forest 



American Fore:st Congress 19 

lands is a forest question, and like all other national 
forest questions its settlement should always be for the 
best interests of the people most deeply interested. 
Forest reserves are essential to the permanent produc- 
tiveness of that portion of the public range which they 
enclose. The question of grazing has from the be- 
ginning been the chief problem in the management of 
the forest reserves. The principles which control the 
conservative use of the public range are identical with 
those which control the conservative use of the public 
forests. The objects are a constant supply of wood 
and water on the one hand and of forage on the other. 
Just as the saw mills must eventually shut down unless 
forestry is applied to the forest from which the saw 
logs come, so the horses, the cattle, and the sheep of 
the West must decrease both in quality and number, 
unless the range lands of the arid region are wisely 
used. Over-grazing is just as fatal to the live stock 
industry as destructive logging is to the lumber in- 
dustry. The highest returns from the forest can be 
had only through recognizing it as invested capital, 
capable, under wise management, of a steady and 
increasing yield, and the permanent carrying power 
of the range can be maintained or increased only by 
the wise regulation of^ grazing. 

The relation of railroads to the forest is no less vital 
than that of the lumberman. The development of 
systems of transportation upon a secure basis depends 
directly upon the preservation and wise use of the 
forest. Without a permanent supply of wood and 
water, the business of the railroads will decline, be- 
cause those industries upon whose production that 
business mainly depends cannot prosper. But the 
railroads are interested in a still more vital way. As 
great and increasing consumers of wood for ties, con- 



20 Prockejdings of TH:e 

struction timbers, poles, and cars, they are in direct 
and urgent need of permanent sources of these sup- 
plies. The problem directly before the railroads is, 
therefore, the forest problem in all its parts. Much 
may be done by the preservative treatment of ties and 
railroad timbers, which not only prolongs their life, 
but also leads to the profitable use of wood of inferior 
kinds and a corresponding decrease in the drain upon 
the forest and the cost of its product. But, important 
as this is, it merely mitigates the danger instead of 
removing it. For their own protection the railroads 
must see to it that the supply of ties and timbers in 
the forest itself is renewed and not destroyed. 

The importance of the public forest lands to mining 
is direct and intimate. Mines cannot be developed 
without wood any more than arid lands can become 
productive without water. The public forest lands 
are, and must continue to be, the chief source of tim- 
bers used in our western mines. The national forest 
reserves are thus vital in their relation to mining; 
and where mining is the chief industry, their resources 
should be jealously guarded against other and less 
productive use. Forest reserves impose no hampering 
restrictions upon the development of mineral wealthy 
either within their borders or their neighborhood, and 
they alone can give the western mining industry a 
permanent supply of wood, and so assure its safety 
now and its largest development in the future. 

I am particularly glad that this Congress will in- 
clude a full discussion of national and State forest 
policy. The forest movement in several States has 
already resulted in the adoption of definite State forest 
policies. In many others, the time is ripe for useful 
work because of the existence of a strong sentiment 
for the best use of the forest. The forest problems 



American Forest Congress 2t 

in different States cannot all be solved in exactly the 
same way. The methods will in each case have to 
be worked out on the ground where they will be used. 
But we have before us here the same opportunity in 
State forest matters as in other phases of the forest 
problem, for full discussion of methods and results. 
Above all we must find the most effective means of 
working together towards the same great ends. 



THE FOREST POLICY OF FRANCE. 

BY 

Mr. J. J. JUSSERAND 

Ambassador from France 

I AM very happy to be enabled, by the flattering 
invitation of the Hon. Secretary of Agriculture, 
to add French congratulations to the American con- 
gratulations and American advice which this Congress 
has just received from the most popular and most 
eloquent voice in the United States. 

The subject of your studies is one indeed which 
appeals most powerfully to man's mind, not to say 
man's heart. The forest is the great friend which 
supplied the early wants of mankind, giving the first 
fuel, helping to the rearing of the first real house. 
And now, after the lapse of thousands of years, the 
forest continues the great friend, so adaptable it is to 
our wants. The more we invent, the greater become 
our new needs, and the more necessary is the forest 
for us. Railroads are called in French ''chemins de 
fer," but for all the iron in them, where would we be 
without the forest ? It supplies the dozen million cubic 
meters of wood spent every, year in the world for 
railways. 

The forest has one singular and providential advan- 
tage over most of the earth-produced elements of our 
industries. When we have exhausted an iron mine, 
a gold mine, an oil well, a supply of natural gas ; when 
the oil has been carried in immense pipes from Chicago 
to New York and from thence to our private lamps, it 
is finished; we can consume the thing; we cannot 
make it. Not so with the forests. It is in our hands 



Amejrican Fore:st Congress 23 

to improve or impair them, to kill them or to make 
them live. As to which of these fates is in store for 
American forests your presence here supplies a suf- 
ficient answer. 

But is there need to do anything, or have we plenty 
of time to think of it? The country is immense, its 
resources prodigious. The nation is a young one; 
should not something be allowed to youth ? Certainly, 
anything, except what might maim and cramp a splen- 
did future. 

That something is allowed, especially in the matter 
of forests, cannot be doubted. One of the first things 
which struck me, coming over to America, was how 
much was allowed. Going north, west or south, sights 
of the same sort met my eyes and my French eyes 
opened with surprise. Going to Saint Louis last year, 
I noticed large spaces where big trees had been cut, 
the stumps remaining as high as a man's shoulder. So 
much wood lost, I thought; so much land untillable 
because of those stumps remaining in place ! Coming 
from Canada on another occasion the train was fol- 
lowing a succession of what should have been beautiful 
valleys. But they were valleys of the shadow of death. 
The view was saddened by the corpses of innumerable 
trees which had been cut, for what cause I do not 
know ; was it for their bark, or for something else ? 
I could not surmise. But the fact was that they were 
there, crumbling to pieces, rotten and unavailable, 
spoiling the landscape, and making the soil useless by 
their thousands of dead bodies. Going to Louisiana, 
in another case, my heart bled truly at seeing the blue 
sky blackened by the smoke of forests in flames. This 
terrible mode of clearing the ground seems to be still 
in use; and I noticed places where the fire, being not 
violent enough, had not cleared the ground, but had 



24 Proce:e:dings of the 

ruined and killed the trees, so that it was havoc pure 
and simple. 

All this, of course, are a foreigner's impressions, 
and perhaps they may be considered unreasonable. 
You are young and wealthy ; you can afford to spend. 
You can afford to spend to-day, and to-day is certainly 
as bright as it can be. But, as you know, squandering 
habits, when once taken, are most difficult to check, at 
a moment's notice, just at the time wanted ; and, as 
your eminent President remarked, the nation should 
think of to-morrow. 

In France, we think much about to-morrows, because 
we have known so many yesterdays. Our case is very 
different. We have not your boundless resources ; we 
must husband what we possess. Our land is limited, 
our mines of small importance; our fields have been 
furrowed by the plough for eighteen centuries more 
than yours; the accumulated public debts, left by past 
regimes or caused by present necessities, weigh on our 
shoulders ; and yet with this weight, at this day, we 
stand, and, if I may believe what I hear reported, our 
friendship is still worth having, as well worth as it 
was ever in times past. 

There is only one explanation : What we do, we try 
to do it with method; what we do, we do with care. 
We have no other secret. 

There is nothing lost in France, nothing thrown 
away — not a rag, not a bit of bread, not a stick of 
wood. Many think we are a laughing, singing nation. 
If we were such, and nothing more, we should have 
long since disappeared. We are a living example that 
people may love to have their laugh and their song, 
and yet keep their forests in good order. Method and 
gloom do not go necessarily together. 

That great philosopher, Bacon, who was no particu- 



Amejrican Fore:st Congrkss 25 

lar friend of the French (he ended badly, you know), 
paid us, in one of his essays, this half-hearted com- 
pliment: "The French are wiser than they seem." 
Well, such as it is, I accept his saying ; to have wisdom 
is the thing, and it little imports whether it is apparent 
or concealed. Roots are not visible, and you know, 
you foresters, that it is the root that feeds. 

Our policy in the matter of forests is a time-honored 
one. Like the rest of the inhabitants of our land, they 
have their own code of laws, the ''Code foresticr," 
framed and issued in 1827, itself, in its main lines, an 
adaptation of Colbert's famous ordinance of 1669, 
which ordinance, in its turn, reproduced other laws, 
some dating back from the time of Charles-the-Wise, 
fourteenth century. 

We were early struck by the necessity of preserving 
forests, and more and more so as we acquired a better 
knowledge of the use and wants of these friends of 
man. We have a National School of Forestry at 
Nancy, where the sound principles of forestry are 
taught. The practical importance of this teaching is 
testified to by so many foreign students whom we are 
happy to welcome there, some coming from America 
— one, an eminent one, whom I would name, if he was 
not so near me on this platform (Mr. Pinchot). 

Our forests have not only a code, but an army of 
their own, an army of six thousand men, foresters, 
rangers and keepers — a real army, submitted to mili- 
tary discipline, so much so that in time of war this 
troop is transferred from the Ministry of Agriculture, 
where all the forestry services are centered, to the 
Department of War. 

Several laws have been passed since the code was 
promulgated, not at all to relax its rules, but to make 
them more practical and efficient. In i860 a law was 



2.6 Proce:i:dings of the: 

enacted making it obligatory for the owner of moun- 
tains or mountain slopes to reforest them if denuded. 
The application of this law is one of my earliest 
souvenirs. In i860, I was not very, very old, and I 
went often with my grandfather to see our Govern- 
ment-ordered plantation. The Government supplied 
the seed and we had to do all the rest. For years I 
went to see our trees, and I had difficulty in seeing 
them, they were so small. Now when I go, the trees 
can scarcely perceive me, they are so tall. 

A new law was passed in 1862, giving more liberty 
to the landowner. He is allowed to refuse to do the 
work. The Government has then the right to pay him 
a fair sum for his land and expel him and plant the 
trees, so important is it considered for the whole com- 
munity. For the importance of such plantations is 
more and more apparent. We see destruction and 
poverty invade the parts where the rules have not been 
applied; wealth and comfort grow in those where the 
rules have been followed. Where there is a just pro- 
portion of forest ground the temperature is more equal, 
the yielding of water more regular, and, as President 
Roosevelt has so well shown a moment ago, forests 
have a most beneficent effect with regard to winds. 
Observations in the South of France have shown that, 
since the Esterel has been reforested, the destructions 
caused by that terrible wind called the mistral have 
diminished. 

The seacoasts of France were being gradually 
invaded by the sand, and the wind carried this death 
powder further inland, as years passed on. In 1810, 
we tried forestry, and the forest showed itself, as usual, 
the friend of man. The sand country has entirely 
disappeared, as well on the Ocean as on the Channel, 
and the desolate regions of yore are now wealthy. 



American Forest Congress 2.'] 

pleasant ones, where people even flock for their recre- 
ation and their health. 

The same careful and methodical policy is being 
introduced in our colonial dominions. There the dif- 
ficulties are sometimes very great, because the havoc 
has been more complete. We try, for example, to 
reinduce trees to give back to Southern Tunis its 
pristine fertility. Most of it is now a sand desert. 
What it was in Roman times we know by the ruins and 
the inscriptions. The capital of the South, Sufifetula, 
as it was called, consists now in scattered ruins in the 
midst of absolute desert. One of the inscriptions dis- 
covered contains a description given by an old Roman 
veteran of what his villa was. He had retired there 
after his campaigns, and describes the trees, the plots 
of grass, and the fluent waters which adorned his 
retreat — now buried under the shroud of the desert 
sand. 

The Arab conquest destroyed all the trees there, and 
killed the forest. The punishment was not long to 
follow. No forest there. No men. Not long after 
the conquest, the mischief was already considerable, 
the land was desolate, and an Arab chronicler, seeing 
the havoc done, recalled in his book the former times 
of prosperity, adding: "But in those days, one could 
walk from Tripoli to Tunis in the shade." 

I shall add only one word. There are, as you know 
full well, two great classes of forests, and no more. 
There is the wild forest and there is the civilized forest. 
People who know forests only through books — I mean 
through bad books, not the books written by members 
of this assembly — fancy that the wild forest is the 
thing. A time there was, too, when people thought 
that the wild man, the man in the state of nature, was 
a nest of virtues, and that, leading a kind of simple 



28 Proceedings oi^ the 

life, he led also, of necessity, a model life. The truth 
is quite different : Virtue, like all plants of price, needs 
cultivation; forests need the eye, the mind, and the 
heart of man. Instead of being full of the most 
beautiful and useful trees, the wild forest offers, by 
comparison, a prodigiously small quantity of good 
trees ; many have outlived their period of use, and they 
prevent the growth of others; many have grown 
crooked; wicked ones have injured the righteous. 

Now the question is, which sort of forest is to be 
favored here? It is a great thing for this country to 
know what your intentions are, and what you mean 
to do. In doing it, in fulfilling your duty as good 
foresters, it so happens that you will, at the same time, 
second what is uppermost in the mind of every good 
American — that is, to help, so far as is in you, to the 
spreading of civilization. 



T 



THE ATTITUDE OF EDUCATIONAL IN- 
STITUTIONS TOWARD FORESTRY 

BY 

B. LAWTON WIGGINS, LL. D. 

Vice-chancellor, University of the South. 

HE attitude of at least one educational institution 
toward forestry will be best appreciated through 
the statement of the following few facts : 

The University of the South has at Sewanee, Ten- 
nessee, what is perhaps the largest university campus 
in the world. It comprises 7,250 acres of land, of 
which 6,500 acres are wooded. In 1898, Mr. Gifford 
Pinchot, Forester of the United States Department of 
Agriculture, inspected the university domain and made 
with the university one of the agreements which the 
Bureau of Forestry has for cooperating with timber- 
land owners in the management of their tracts. To be 
acceptable to the university, the scheme of management 
had to provide for good net financial returns, for we 
are in the position of most small owners of timberland 
— unable to leave much merchantable timber in the 
woods or to reinvest much of our profit in forest 
improvements. To comply with the requirements of 
the Bureau of Forestry, the working plan had to pro- 
vide for leaving the forest in better condition than 
before ; in other words, the working plan had to cover 
the judicious selection of the trees to be cut, so as to 
favor the reproduction and growth of the desirable 
kinds, the avoidance of damage to small growth and of 
waste in cutting logs, and protection against fire, while 
at the same time assuring a profit to the university. 



30 Proceedings of the 

And what has been the result ? I recall quite dis- 
tinctly that when a little while previously a lumberman 
offered $2,000 for the major portion of our timber, 
there were those in authority who regarded that sum 
as a fair valuation. We began operations under the 
direction of foresters in 1900, and have cut a little over 
two million board feet of logs, at a net profit of about 
$7,250. Two years more of cutting — and profit — 
remain. And the condition of the forest is satisfactory 
to the Bureau of Forestry, which finds that there are 
plenty of vigorous small trees over the logged area 
given a new lease of life owing to increased light and 
growing space, and that reproduction of the best kind 
has taken place, even little yellow poplars, white ashes, 
and white elms being found. 

This has furnished an object lesson for our imme- 
diate neighbors and for representatives of the entire 
South, who visit our beautiful plateau in large numbers 
every summer. They can see and hear of results from 
the practice of conservative logging, and readily under- 
stand the attitude of the University of the South. It 
is a zealous missionary, preaching everywhere and at 
all times the gospel of forestry. 

I speak to you this afternoon not as a trained pro- 
fessional forester, but as one whose interest in the 
proper management of timberland has been quickened 
and strengthened by the above-mentioned association 
with foresters. President Roosevelt has told us that 
the forest problem is in many ways the most vital 
internal problem in the United States ; that "the United 
States is exhausting its forest supplies far more rapidly 
than they are being produced ; that the situation is 
grave, and there is only one remedy ; that that remedy 
is the introduction of practical forestry on a large scale, 
which is, of course, impossible without trained men, 



American Forest Congrejss 31 

men trained in the closet and also by actual field work 
under practical conditions." The economic peril is 
coming to be realized everywhere — less so in the South 
perhaps than in any other section, though even there 
the far-seeing men are now convinced that something 
should be done to prevent the diminution of water 
supplies, the occurrence of disastrous floods, and the 
almost inevitable and speedy exhaustion of the timber 
supply; and that for this purpose the trained hands 
and heads of several thousand men will be required to 
start and continue the work of improving our woods. 

The calls for the assistance of the Bureau of Fores- 
try indicate the demand for the services of trained 
men, and this constant and increasing need is bound to 
grow larger and more insistent each time a forester 
has a chance to create practical examples of his useful 
and necessary sphere in the welfare of the nation. 

How are they to be supplied ? 

Europe has long since discovered the value and 
necessity of "forest schools," not only for turning out 
trained specialists in the art of forestry, but of diffusing 
among the people a general and genuine interest in 
forestry; for creating a healthful public sentiment, 
which constitutes the best possible protection for the 
woods; for leading men to regard forests as their 
friends and to understand their influence in staying 
spring torrents and preventing summer droughts, and 
their economic value in supplying lumber and fuel. 

Recent federal and state legislation evidences a 
growing public sentiment in favor of forestry, but we 
must not fail to realize that all laws which are not 
supported by a general public sentiment are difficult 
of operation. 

Ever since the founding of the American Forestry 
Association in 1882 the need of providing for educa- 



32 PrOCE:e:dINGS 0^ TH^ 

tion in forestry has been stressed more and more from 
year to year. Yet only six years ago Doctor Fernow 
spoke of the New York College of Forestry as ''this 
novel institution." To the bounty of the State of New 
York the first professional college of forestry in the 
United States owed its existence, and to Cornell Uni- 
versity belongs the credit of administering it. It 
began its first course, which covered four years of 
undergraduate work, in 1898 with five students. When 
it closed in 1902, on account of the omission from the 
state appropriation bill of the clause providing funds 
for its maintenance owing to misguided and selfish 
opposition, it had forty-four students enrolled. All 
who completed their courses promptly secured good 
positions. In fact, the pressure for the services of 
educated foresters was so great that leaves of absence 
before graduation were allowed to some graduates, 
and one senior yielded to the temptation to accept a 
position before completing his course. 

The Yale Forest School, opened in 1900, was the 
first graduate school of forestry organized in this 
country. To quote Professor Graves' own language: 
"The organization had in mind the needs of two 
classes of men required to carry on the work of for- 
estry in the United States: First, thoroughly trained 
experts, who are competent to organize and administer 
the work in government, state, or private forests, or 
to pursue the necessary scientific study of our forests ; 
and second, men with a general knowledge of forestry 
and special skill as woodsmen, qualified to act as 
rangers, inspectors, foremen, etc. The first class of 
men will be called upon to assist in the organization 
of the work of forestry on government, state, or 
private tracts; to direct legislation; to creat public 
sentiment in favor of forestry ; to pursue the scientific 



Ame:rican Fori:st Congrkss 33 

study of our trees and forests ; to solve the difficult 
problems of the influence of fire, grazing, and excessive 
lumbering on forests, as well as the problems connected 
with the protection of the head waters of rivers; and 
to carry on and direct the practical management of 
forests of every character and size. In order to do 
this work intelligently and successfully a thorough 
special training in forestry is required, in addition to 
a general education. The forest school has been made 
a graduate department, to which only college gradu- 
ates are admitted without examination, in order to 
attract educated men to forestry and to produce men 
of the highest possible training for the work of devel- 
oping the profession. The fact, however, was not 
overlooked that there is a class of work for which so 
thorough a training is required, and the summer school 
is especially designed to furnish instruction sufficiently 
comprehensive for this work." 

Notwithstanding the high standing required for 
admission, the registration has increased from a begin- 
ning of five to sixty-three at present. The students 
have come from thirty-three of the United States and 
from the Philippines, Japan, South Africa, Canada, 
and Sweden. In one respect, says President Hadley, 
the Yale Forest School is a model to the other depart- 
ments of the university, in that it is in active touch 
with the demands of practical life and the opportunities 
for employment therein. It gives the students of Yale 
an assurance that side by side with their training in 
general culture and public spirit, they are adapting 
themselves to speedy usefulness in the complex organi- 
zation of modern commercial life. 

The Biltmore Forest School opened in 1897, and is 
therefore the oldest in the United States. Although 
not connected with an established educational institu- 



34 PrOCE:KDINGS of THE) 

tion, it has the great advantage of being located on 
Biltmore estate, where Mr. Pinchot introduced scien- 
tific forest management into the United States in 1891, 
which good work has been kept going by the able 
founder and director of the school, Doctor Schenck. 

The two years of graduate forest work afforded 
by the University of Michigan began in 1903, and the 
department has grown in every way. 

Harvard, Maine, Minnesota, and Nebraska univer- 
sities, and Iowa State College of Agriculture and 
Mechanical Arts have departments of forestry. Most 
of the agricultural colleges offer some instruction in 
forestry in connection with the courses in botany, 
horticulture, or the like. 

In several cases high schools are following the lead 
of the universities, and more would doubtless do so if 
the teachers were properly equipped. The Secretary 
of Agriculture declares that the rapid increase of inter- 
est in forestry throughout the country is nowhere more 
noticeable than in educational circles. 

Such is the attitude of many of our educational 
institutions toward forestry, and yet only a short time 
ago I heard it argued that instruction in forestry 
should be given in isolated, independent schools; that 
it should constitute no part of a university course. 
Continental Europe settled that question more than 
a quarter of a century ago, when, says Mr. B. G. 
Northrup, "a congress of foresters, which was at Frei- 
burg and attended by nearly four hundred members, 
representing all parts of Germany, Switzerland, Aus- 
tria, and Russia, after a long and spirited discussion 
by prominent professors from both classes of forest 
schools, decided by an almost unanimous vote (only 
sixteen dissenting) in favor of combining instruction 
in forestry with other departments in the university; 



Ame:rican F'orest Congress 35 

and this leads me to the question, "What should be the 
attitude of our universities toward forestry?" 

Is not a university a place of universal search for 
universal truth? Let whoever is disposed to be impa- 
tient of the progress that is being made reflect upon 
the history of recent university development. We must 
look backward in order to look forward. 

It was not until late in the last century that science 
received recognition, and provision was made for its 
teaching. When graduates of American colleges real- 
ized that they had failed to get what they needed for 
their life work and that there was a strong prejudice 
against the admission of applied sciences on a proper 
basis, they began to endow coordinate faculties, which 
continued for a long time as separate faculties, and 
are not even now completely assimiliated. It was some 
time also before pure science, which had been taught 
in a most elementary way, met with a suitable response 
— that chairs were established and equipments pur- 
chased. Who does not recall the crusade of science 
against philology and the conflict which was waged 
almost unremittingly for half a century or more 
between the advocates of classical and scientific study ; 
the latter claiming that we must reconstruct our aca- 
demic and university systems after the inspiration of 
modern ideas, and must substitute those studies which 
would be more efficient in their disciplinary value and 
more useful by reason of their closer affinities with the 
practical tendencies of our modern scientific life; the 
former, while admitting freely the claims of science, 
maintaining that the classics were needed more than 
ever to resist the utilitarian and materialistic tendencies 
of the age, and that an education cannot be full-orbed 
and rounded oflf without the classics. Greek and Latin 
had been supreme for so many centuries that the physi- 



36 Proceedings oi^ the 

cal and natural sciences were not without a struggle 
admitted to equal rank. 

This led to a readjustment of the long-established 
and closely articulated curriculum, which resulted 
finally in the adoption of the elective system. And this 
was the beginning of a recognition granted to what 
one might call the new learning — modern science, 
economics, political science, and the like, which proved, 
when properly taught, in no respect inferior to the 
subjects of the old curriculum, either in training the 
mind or preparing for future careers. The limitations 
of the traditional college education of the past, which 
was intended for only certain of the learned profes- 
sions — law, medicine, and particularly theology — soon 
became apparent. The world was moving on. New 
constituences and new demands were arising, new 
problems were being projected on the economic and 
political horizons, new questions were pressing for 
answer. Must we not readjust our education forces 
to meet the needs of that large majority of men pre- 
paring to engage in banking, railways, insurance, trade 
and industry, forestry, diplomacy, journalism, and pol- 
itics? Are not these several callings as important to 
the life of the nation as the traditional professions? 
State universities derive their support from the taxa- 
tion of the whole people, representing in a large meas- 
ure the fruits of the toil and self-denial — whether 
voluntary or enforced, whether direct or indirect — of 
the common people. Are they justified in spending so 
much money to furnish a certain kind of education for 
the benefit of a privileged class, where there is this 
growing demand for the diffusion of higher learning, 
for its much wider application to the daily life and 
institutions of the whole people? 

Do not all professions and callings require, and will 



American Forest Congress 37 

they not more and more require, thought and discip- 
Hnary training as well as technical training? Is it 
true, as Mr. Carnegie and Mr. Schwab have said, that 
the most efficient school of business is business? If 
so, ought it not be otherwise? We are told that 
President Thwing, who has been looking into the 
matter of salaries received by graduates of regular 
colleges and scientific schools, finds that in the long 
run the college graduates do the best; that scientific 
methods are supposed to fit men for immediate employ- 
ment; that graduates of these schools seem to find 
employment somewhat more readily and at somewhat 
higher pay than the college graduate; but that the 
difference is not great even at first, and that after a 
few years the college graduate has the best of it. Only 
a few years ago a director of the Pennsylvania system 
of railroads remarked that in future promotions pref- 
erence would be given college men — men who had 
been trained in the principles as well as in the practice 
of the profession, and who had acquired not only the 
technique, but also the capacity to think and to com- 
prehend all the problems which might arise. For, as 
Mr. Laughlin expressed it, "While a school of mechan- 
ical engineering is required to fit a man for the 
practical parts of railroading, there exists in that pro- 
fession a far more important career for the man who 
is competent to direct the traffic, classify goods, fix 
rates, watch the coming financial depression, know the 
signs of coming prosperity, have insight into as well 
as experience with the questions of labor and the rela- 
tions of employers to employees, who can understand 
the duties as well as the privileges of corporations, and 
who has the masterly mind to direct and carry out 
great financial operations involved in the management 
of securities on a scale hitherto unprecedented." 



38 Procee^dings o^ the: 

Purely technical or engineering training will not then 
suffice the man who aspires to leadership in railroading 
or in any like calling; he must be schooled in legal, 
political, and economic science as well. 

There is no profession I know of that requires wider 
knowledge than does forestry. All the things which 
the best railroad man needs, the successful forester 
must have, with more besides. Since he deals scien- 
tifically with the soil and a product of it, he must be 
much of a geologist, botanist, zoologist, and chemist. 
The harvesting and manufacture of his crop calls for 
no mean engineering skill and knowledge. The 
managing of his property is likely to call for legal 
knowledge. And so on through many other essentials 
in his education, which only a real university can give 
him. 

Another and most important reason why forestry 
should be a university course and not a separate school 
is that the forester is above all a man with practical 
problems to handle — a man who must come in contact 
with men. So he needs the democratizing influence 
of university life, the broadening of his point of view 
from association with men from everywhere and with 
different aims in life. Without this breadth of view 
how could foresters properly handle the many prob- 
lem.s discussed before this Congress? It will take men 
far more catholic than those who academically settle 
affairs on the basis of knowledge acquired in their 
back yards to give a square deal to all the interests 
concerned in the creation of forest reserves and in the 
granting of timber and grazing permits on them; to 
devise schemes of fire prevention and extinction for 
all parts of our overburned country; to insure the 
growing of the right kind of trees in the right places ; 
to improve our already expert logging and milling 



American Forest Congress 39 

operations — no easy task, for the skill of our loggers 
and lumbermen is proverbial. 

If I may as a Southerner use my section of the 
country as an example of the varied problems confront- 
ing the forester, I will say that we need him to point 
out our natural forest areas, and thus save us the time, 
effort, and substance which we otherwise might waste 
in clearing them only to find through bitter experience 
that they would grow nothing else than trees; to 
indicate the methods of logging which would insure 
the perpetuation of our standard trees, the yellow 
poplar, oaks, hickories, gums, cypress, and pines. One 
has already shown us a way to gather turpentine 
which has added millions to the revenues of the pine 
belt through improving the product, and which has 
greatly lengthened the period during which trees may 
be bled. We need him to solve our fire problem and 
devise means for prevention of and protection from 
this arch enemy of forest management. His scientifi- 
cally established facts regarding tree growth, influ- 
ences, and value present and future will strengthen 
our pleas to state legislatures for wisely conceived, 
far-sighted tax laws. 

So we repeat this question: Why should not our 
universities offer courses which will fit men for all, 
instead of a few, professions? I know there are dan- 
gers to be apprehended, and that it will require the 
utmost care to avoid the Scylla and Charybdis of a 
narrow utilitarianism and the pursuit of art and science 
as ends in themselves; but of the many advantages, 
not the least will be the introduction of a vitalizing 
and democratizing element into the student community 
which will cause our universities to come forth from 
their cloistered seclusion into a closer touch with the 
activities of life. 



40 Prockedings 0^ THE 

This is the great problem of the twentieth century. 
It overshadows all others. Signs are not wanting that 
we shall witness the full realization of all that 
President Hadley has so admirably expressed in the 
following words : 

"Our brotherhood knows no bounds of occupation. 
The day when people thought of the learned profes- 
sions as something set apart from all others, the 
exclusive property of a privileged few, is past. Opin- 
ions may differ as to the achievements of democracy ; 
but none can fail to value that growing democracy of 
letters which makes of every calling a learned and 
noble profession, when it is pursued with the clearness 
of vision which is furnished by science or history and 
with the disinterested devotion to the public welfare 
which true learning inspires. We are proud to have 
with us not only the theologian, the jurist, or the 
physician ; not merely the historical investigator or the 
scientific discoverer ; but the men of every name, who, 
by arms or arts, in letters or in commerce, have con- 
tributed to bring all callings equally within the scope 
of university life." 

We are about to see the proper university recogni- 
tion given to the callings upon which so much of our 
national welfare depends — agriculture, the production 
and harvesting of field crops ; silviculture, the produc- 
tion and harvesting of forest crops. 

For the fulfilment of this prophecy, the recent utter- 
ances of our educational leaders and the munificent 
gifts of our men of wealth give us hope and encour- 
agement. It is of the very spirit and life of our 
democracy, and it must come. Of all the great move- 
ments of the twentieth century, none w^ill prove more 
characteristic of democracy and more vital and vivify- 
ing than the establishment of ''an elementary school 



American Forest Cqngrkss 41 

in every home, of a secondary school in every city, 
township or incorporated village, and of a university 
in every state" — a university which will be the insepa- 
rable adjunct as it is the apex of the whole educational 
system, where all branches of human learning are 
taught and all professions and callings — law and medi- 
cine, theology and teaching, commerce, trade, and 
industry, agriculture and silviculture — are made equal, 
a federation of them all being recognized as the only 
basis of educational solidarity. Then there will be 
coordination and cooperation instead of competition 
and rivalry. There will be gathered the representa- 
tives of every class and station, of every calling and 
profession, of every political and religious creed, con- 
stituting a body politic, a vertitable democracy, learning 
the lesson of citizenship as well as of scholarship; 
lighting at this central fire the Torch of Universal 
Truth and passing it from teacher to pupil, onward to 
the end of time. 



IMPORTANCE OF THE FORESTS TO 
AGRICULTURE 

BY 

HON. JOHN LAMB 

Member of Congress from Virginia 

npHE preservation of the forests of America is a 
subject of vast importance, and one that has been 
too long neglected. 

Should the deliberations of this Congress result in 
calling the attention of our landowners, farmers and 
mechanics to this impending national danger, beyond 
the power of figures to compute, its members and 
delegates will richly deserve the gratitude of future 
generations. 

Within the lives of many of us the question of the 
destruction of the forests did not arise. We have 
seen the log piles, and witnessed the destruction of 
millions of feet of the finest timber that ever grew, 
that the land might be cultivated in corn, cotton and 
tobacco. Some of us have seen this land turned out 
to grow up in scrub pines and oaks, while fresh forests 
were denuded of timber that would have enriched the 
next generation. 

The unnecessary destruction of the forests in this 
way has brought untold loss to the Alantic vStates, 
from New England to the Gulf of Mexico. It has 
been estimated that in the State of New York alone 
between 1850 and i860, more than 1,500,000 acres of 
timber land were cleared for purposes of lumber and 
agriculture. During that decade more than 50,000,000 
acres in the whole country were brought under culti- 
vation. 



American Forest Congress 43 

The destruction of the forests during the Civil War 
has not and cannot be computed. This loss affected 
the agricultural interests in every State that was the 
scene of operations. The destruction of large forests, 
the gradual growth of hundreds of years, caused im- 
mense loss. Both armies contributed to this. Costly 
bridges, dwellings, and out-houses were consumed by 
fire. The relaying of railroads and rebuilding of 
bridges and dwellings demanded a new supply, and 
helped to drain the country of timber that was left. 
Native Virginians in some sections refused to remain 
where all the timber had been swept away. For the 
same reason emigrants declined to come to some of 
the finest parts of the State. 

The menace to health is greatly augmented by the 
destruction of the forests, and the farmers of this 
country have suffered and are still suffering, to an 
alarming extent from this cause. We have no dry 
statistics on this point, but the experience of many, 
and the observation of all who travel, will confirm the 
statement. 

The counties of Culpeper and Fauquier, in Virginia, 
were singularly free from malaria while their forests 
stood comparatively undisturbed. After the destruc- 
tion of these, through war and other causes, fevers, 
before unknown, became prevalent. 

The elderly physicians of Eastern Virginia might 
furnish an interesting chapter to history on this point ; 
for it is one that deeply concerns the welfare of the 
farmers of the whole country, who are suffering in 
many ways from the wasteful destruction of the for- 
ests. It is to be hoped that our Department of 
Agriculture will investigate the health conditions that 
prevail after the removal of the forests from certain 
localities, and request the medical fraternity to furnish 
their valuable experiences along this line. 



44 Proce:e:dings o^ thi^ 

It is well known that a house surrounded by forest 
trees is nearly always healthy. A gentleman who 
occupied such a home for ten or twelve years in one 
of the eastern counties of Virginia had no sickness 
of consequence in his family and did not pay a phy- 
sician fifty dollars during that time. He afterwards 
purchased a large farm, surrounded by large tracts of 
cleared land with few trees, and lost in a few years 
several members of his family, and contributed to the 
doctors a goodly part of his profits. 

The ceaseless reproduction of the pine forests of 
the South Atlantic States is all that has saved the 
farms and farmers of that section from destruction. 
For over two hundred years there has been a ceaseless 
war upon the forest. The early settlers cut it down 
and burned it up, and their children, with few excep- 
tions, followed their example. Then came the general 
consumption for rails and wood; the demand for 
mechanical industry; the destruction for liquidation 
of farm debts ; the sale of cordwood and sawed 
lumber to northern markets, till every tree of the 
original growth in most of the States have been re- 
moved. The second growth of old field pine is now 
receiving the same treatment, with smaller profit to 
the seller and poorer results to the consumer. Could 
the farmers of these States be persuaded to adopt the 
intensive system of farming, and have their poorer 
lands grow up in timber, they would improve their 
own condition, and hand down to their children valu- 
able possessions. A gentleman of my acquaintance 
informed me that where he planted corn when a boy, 
he had cut from the land, a few years ago, cordwood, 
which he sold for eight dollars a cord in New York 
city. 

Many thoughtful persons have claimed that the wood 



American Fore:st Congre:ss 45 

and timber interests of some sections of the South 
have mihtated against agriculture in various ways — 
not to mention the effect on the waterfall — and the 
injury resulting from overflows and freshets. 

The disastrous results of the latter, caused by the 
removal of the forests along the banks of the rivers, 
cannot be learned from any statistics. The report 
made to our Committee of Agriculture shows a dis- 
tressing condition, and one that appeals strongly for 
Federal and State legislation. Many valuable farms 
have been impaired in value, and some utterly de- 
stroyed, by the sand and debris washed down by the 
overflows. Cities and villages that were not affected 
years ago are now often flooded with water, eight to 
fifteen feet deep. All this shows the importance of 
forests to agriculture, and appeals to the American 
people to spare the trees, and will in time — not far 
off — compel the State legislatures, as well as the 
Federal Government, to take action in the premises. 

We learn from the experiences of other nations the 
consequences of the continued destruction of the 
forests. Palestine, Egypt, Italy and France have seen 
some of their populous regions turned into a wilder- 
ness, and their fertile lands into deserts. The danger 
here is greater than many suppose. Immediate action, 
both for prevention and restoration, is needed. 

"Bernard Pallissy," the famous "Potter of the Tuil- 
leries," one of the most profound men ever produced 
in Europe, plead for the wood in France as follows: 

Having expressed his indignation at the folly of 
men in destroying the woods, his interlocutor defends 
the policy of felling them by citing the examples of 
divers bishops, cardinals, priors, abbotts, monkeries 
and chapters, which by cutting their woods have made 
three profits; the sale of the timber, the rent of the 



46 Proceedings oe the 

ground, and the good portion of the grain grown 
by the peasants upon it. To this argument PaUissy 
repHes : "I cannot enough detest this thing, and I call 
it not an error hut a curse and calamity to all France; 
for when the forests shall be cut all arts shall cease, and 
they who practice them shall be driven out to eat 
grass with Nebuchadnezzar and the beasts of the field. 
I have divers times thought to set down in writing the 
arts that shall perish when there shall be no more 
wood, but when I had written down a great number, 
I did perceive that there could be no end of my writing, 
and having diligently considered, I found there was 
not any which could be followed without wood. * * * 
And truly I could well allege to thee a thousand 
reasons, but 'tis so cheap a philosophy that the very 
chamber wenches, if they do but think, may see that 
without wood it is not possible to exercise any manner 
of human art or cunning." 

G. P. Marsh, in his valuable work "Man and Nature," 
page 232, says: "There are parts of Asia Minor, of 
Northern Africa, of Greece, and even of Alpine 
Europe, where the operations of causes set in action 
by man has brought the face of earth to a desolation 
almost as complete as that of the moon; and though, 
within that brief space of time men call the 'historical 
period' they are known to have been covered with 
luxuriant woods, verdant pastures and fertile meadows, 
they are now too far deteriorated to be reclaimable by 
man ; nor can they become again fitted for human use 
except through great geological changes, or other 
mysterious influences or agencies of which we have no 
present knowledge, or over which we have no pros- 
pective control. 

"The destructive changes occasioned by the agency 
of man upon the flanks of the Alps, the Appennines, 



American Forest Congress 47 

the Pyrennes, and other mountain ranges in central 
and southern Europe, and the progress of physical 
deterioration, have become so rapid that, in some 
localities, a single generation has witnessed the begin- 
ning and the end of the melancholy revolution. 

*'It is certain that a desolation like that which has 
overwhelmed many once beautiful and fertile regions 
of Europe awaits an important part of the territory of 
the United States, unless prompt measures are taken 
to check the action of destructive causes already in 
operation. * * * 

''The only legal provisions from which anything 
can be hoped are such as shall make it a matter of 
private advantage to the landholder to spare the trees 
upon his ground, and promote the growth of young 
wood. Something may be done by exempting stand- 
ing forests from taxation, and by imposing taxes on 
wood felled for fuel or timber ; something by premiums 
or honorary distinctions for judicious management 
of the woods. It would be difficult to induce gov- 
ernments, general or local, to make the necessary 
appropriations for such purposes. But there can be 
no doubt that it would be sound economy in the end." 

It is claimed that about two hundred square miles 
of fertile soil are washed into the rivers annually in 
the United States, while the loss in crops and other 
property destroyed by floods will run up into the 
millions. 

The most of this loss can be traced to the destruction 
of the forests along the river banks. 

Forest-covered areas retain a large percentage of the 
rainfall, while regions where there are no forests allow 
a much greater proportion of the rainfall to at once 
find its way into the streams. It is well known that 
many of our streams are subject to more disastrous 



48 Procei^dings 0^ THE 

floods and to lower water stages in dry seasons than 
was the case before the forests were cut off. 

Whether forests increase the amount of precipitation 
or not — on this authorities are not agreed — it is very 
certain from the observation and experience of those 
who live in the country that local showers are rsore 
frequent in the neighborhood of dense forests. We 
may well contend that the forest helps to water the 
farm; that it protects from disastrous wind storms, 
both in winter and summer; prevents the spread of 
disease, besides furnishing an inexhaustible and self- 
renewing supply of a material indispensable to the 
successful exercise of every art of peace, as well as 
much of the destructive energy of war. 

So important is this subject that the farmers of this 
country should hail with delight the work of this 
Congress, and join hands with you in the earnest effort 
you are now and will hereafter make to save America 
from the disaster that has overtaken many countries 
in Europe. 

Experience has shown that no legislation can secure 
the permanence of the forests in private hands. The 
farmers must be educated along this line. The earnest 
efforts of the Department of Agriculture must be 
encouraged, and the means necessary for the sending 
out of literature must be furnished by the Congress. 
Such Bulletins as Nos. 67 and 173, by B. E. Fernow, 
of the Division of Forestry, will accomplish a great 
deal. The farmers' institutes in the states must take 
up the subject and help to create a public sentiment 
that will change present conditions and lead to tree 
planting on many other than Arbor days. 

Every word written, printed or spoken on this sub- 
ject will bring a blessing and the author will deserve 
public thanks. As a subject of political economy no 



American Forest Congress 49 

more important one can be brought to the attention 
of the citizens of this repubHc. 

As a people we have solved some vexing problems. 
Many others confront us to-day, and will tax our 
patience, courage, and endurance. Profiting by the 
experience of other countries, impelled by the imminent 
dangers of the present time, and encouraged by the 
prospect of laying up for future generations a supply 
of material necessary to their comfort and safety, we 
should devote our energies to the work of restoring 
the American forests. We know that growth is slow, 
and restoration tedious. We also know that the perse- 
verance and energy of the American is equal to any 
task he assumes. 

We have 5,674,875 farmers in this country. Could 
one-third of these be induced to plant half an acre 
each in forest trees a year, we would have nearly a 
million acres a year added to the forests. In a decade 
at this rate we would have gone very far in solving a 
problem of great moment, and feel that we had done 
much towards offsetting the destruction and prevent- 
ing the coming desolation. 

The preservation and restoration of the American 
forests will greatly add to the comfort and beauty of 
our homes, and tend to keep the youths of the land in 
the rural districts, free from the temptations and vices 
of city life. The migration from country to city is an 
alarming feature of our social life. There are already 
indications of the returning tide. The preservation of 
the forests and the beautifying of country homes will 
strengthen the patriotic sentiment in the country and 
intensify reverence for home. 

A lack of reverence is a growing evil in our land. 
We observe it everywhere. North, South, East, and 
West. Students, philosophers, and divines inveigh 



50 Proc^e:dings o^ the 

against it, offering various remedies for the evil. 

We suggest the preservation of home and home ties, 
the cultivation of reverence for Mother Earth, and the 
preservation of the noble forests. 

It is the earth alone of all the elements around us 
that is never found an enemy to man. The great body 
of waters oppress him with rain and devour him with 
inundations. The air rushes on in storms and prepares 
the tempest or lights up the volcano; but the earth, 
gentle and indulgent, ever subservient to the wants of 
man, spreads his walk with flowers and his table with 
plenty; returns with interest every good intrusted to 
her care; and though she produces the poison, still 
supplies the antidote; though teased more to supply 
his luxuries than his necessities, yet even to the last 
she continues her kind indulgence, and when life is 
over piously hides his remains in her bosom. 



DEPENDENCE OF BUSINESS INTERESTS 
UPON THE FORESTS 

BY 

HOWARD ELLIOTT 

President, Northern Pacific Railway 

MEN may, and do, differ widely in their views as 
to the extent to which Federal control and 
supervision should be appHed to various forms of 
business in the United States, but there can be less 
difference of opinion over the idea that the preserva- 
tion and reproduction of the forests must, at present, 
be undertaken by the Federal or State Governments, 
or both, if the work is to be done at all. Possibly as 
the subject becomes better understood private capital 
can undertake this work in some sections where the 
conditions are favorable, but, at the present time, it is 
probably true that forest reproduction by individuals 
will not stand the test of yielding an adequate return 
on the investment. Recognition of these conditions, 
and the importance of forest preservation to the 
reclamation of the arid lands have resulted in the 
adoption of a public Forest Reserve policy which 
should receive support, suggestion, and approval. 
Business enterprises that are dependent upon the for- 
ests should recognize this condition and plan accord- 
ingly. 

I feel that I owe some apology for venturing to say 
anything to this meeting, composed of men who have 
spent more time than I have, and who know more 
than I do on the general subject of forestry, and its 
relations to the welfare of the country, now and in the 



5ia Procee:dings o^ the 

future. A very great personal and business interest 
in the subject is my excuse for being here. 

The Northern Pacific Railway Company, of which 
I have the honor to be the president, traverses states 
in which there are forest reserves as follows : 

Existing Proposed Total 

State. Acres. Acres. Acres. 

Minnesota 708,840 798,840 

Montana 7,882,400 4,077,700 11,960,100 

Idaho 3,955,220 3,501,520 7,456,740 

Washington 7,012,960 2,603,480 9,616,440 

Total 18,850,580 10,891,540 29,742,120 

a total in which the Northern Pacific Railway Com- 
pany is interested, of nearly 30,000,000 acres. 

Included in this acreage are lands granted to the 
Northern Pacific Railway Company, amounting to: 

Montana 1,507,130.53 

Idaho 228,208.36 

Washington 1,292,562.93 

Total 3,027,901.82 

These lands were given by the Government in 1864, 
to induce the building of the road at a time when even 
the wisest ovN^ners of capital hesitated about undertak- 
ing an enterprise so large, and so doubtful as to the 
outcome; and the discouragement and losses to those 
investing in this railroad, until within the last few 
years, are a matter of common knowledge. 

During the last five years, of the freight handled 
by the Northern Pacific Railway, forest product ship- 
ments were : 



American Forest Congress 51b 

Tons. 

For the year ending June 30, 1900 2,207,526 

For the year ending June 30, 1901 2,741,708 

For the year ending June 30, 1902 3,694,694 

For the year ending June 30, 1903 5,090,387 

For the year ending June 30, 1904 5,285,077 

The prosperity and future growth of North Dakota, 
of Montana, of Idaho, and of Washington, are depen- 
dent very largely upon the successful irrigation of 
lands adjacent to the streams and rivers which find 
their source of supply in the mountains covered by 
the existing or proposed forest reserves. 

And the Northern Pacific, in common with all other 
railroads, is vitally interested in the subject of ties and 
timber with which to maintain existing railroads, and 
to build new ones. 

So the interest I represent is, and will be, affected 
very directly by the work of the Government in con- 
nection with the forests, and to-day an earnest effort is 
being made to arrive at some fair basis of adjustment 
between the Government and the Northern Pacific 
Railway Company so as to obtain the best results in 
the Forest Reserves controlled by the Government, and 
preserve to the railroad its acreage for its use in ob- 
taining ties and timber in the future. 

Hence, when your gifted Forester, Mr. Gifford 
Pinchot, and your worthy and energetic President, 
the Honorable Secretary of Agriculture, asked me 
to participate in this meeting, I hesitated, but finally 
accepted with some reluctance, feeling that I could 
bring little that was new to the discussion. I accepted 
because it seemed ungracious to decline the cordial 
invitation, and because I wished to express, so far as 
possible, by my presence here, the interest that the 
Northern Pacific Railway Company takes in the whole 



5IC Proceedings of the 

subject, and to encourage other railroads to do like- 
wise ; to express, further, the willingness and intention 
of our company to cooperate on reasonable lines with 
the Federal Government for better forest methods and 
wood treatment, and to emphasize the importance to 
many large interests and to railroad business particu- 
larly, of being less wasteful and prodigal with the 
wooden materials used in commercial enterprises in 
the United States. 

The first great business directly dependent upon the 
forest is that of the lumberman; there is probably in- 
vested in logging camps, saw mills, planing mills and 
other enterprises incident to producing forest products 
in the rough, over $1,000,000,000. Upon this great 
business, employing many men, and paying out mil- 
lions annually in wages, depend in turn very many 
manufacturing enterprises scattered from one end of 
the United States to the other ; depend the wood pulp 
and paper business of the country ; depend in part the 
successful prosecution of many mining enterprises. 

The transportation business is dependent upon the 
success of these commercial enterprises, and they in 
turn are dependent upon a safe, efficient, prompt, and 
economical system of transportation. 

Many of the manufacturing interests will be slack- 
ened, depressed, and perhaps stopped entirely, unless 
steps are taken to use to the best advantage the forests 
we now have, and to arrange to reproduce them for 
use in the future. 

The railroads represent in round figures an invest- 
ment of about $13,000,000,000. They collect and dis- 
bursement annually about $2,000,000,000, of which 
$800,000,000 goes directly to labor. They carry in a 
year 21,000,000,000 passengers one mile; they trans- 
port in a year 180,000,000,000 tons of freight one mile 



American Forest Congress 5 id 

at an average rate of three-fourths of a cent per ton 
per mile, far lower than the rates in any other country 
in the world; and they do this with wages far higher 
than in any other country in the world, and with a 
general service far better than that given by any other 
nation. 

An absolutely essential part of a modern railroad is 
a safe, strong, and good track, and these figures about 
railroads are given simply to show the magnitude of 
that business in investment, in wages, in work done, 
and in the price paid therefor. Anything that tends 
to make the maintenance and operation of this great 
commercial tool more expensive must be offset either 
by a decrease in wages, by an increase in rates, by a 
decrease in efficiency, by a decrease in returns to own- 
ers, or by all combined. 

To have good track the railroads must have some 
form of support under the rails, and the present prac- 
tice is a wooden tie. In this item alone, based upon 
the actual requirements for a period of years by one 
large system, it is estimated that the total annual con- 
sumption of ties, for renewals only, in all of the rail- 
roads of the United States, is at least 100,000,000, to 
which add 20,000,000 for additional tracks and yards, 
and for the construction of new railroads, and the total 
is the equivalent in board measure of more than 4,000,- 
000,000 feet. 

The significance of these figures is more apparent 
when it is remembered that about 200 ties is the aver- 
age yield per acre of forest, varying very greatly in 
different localities; so that to supply this single item 
necessitates the denudation annually of over one-half 
million acres of forest. But the cross tie supply is 
only one of the forest products required by the rail- 
roads. There are bridge timbers, fence posts, tele- 



5ie Procee:dings of the 

graph poles, building timber of all kinds, car material — 
all of which together, it is estimated, will equal in 
board measure the cross tie item, so that it is possible 
that the railroads of the United States, for all purposes, 
require, under present practices, the entire product of 
almost one million acres of the forest annually. 

So the railroad business, as well as the manufactur- 
ing business, in a number of directions, is interested in, 
and very dependent upon, the preservation of the for- 
ests of this country, and in a wise handling of the 
subject by the Government, both National and State; 
in the continuance of the supply of timber for use now 
and in the future; in the revenue derived from the 
transportation of forest products; in conserving the 
water supply of the country so that the maximum 
amount of arid land may be irrigated and thus support 
a producing and consuming population. 

Until the time came when the increase in distance 
from the point of supply of timber, and the increase 
in the value of the stumpage, resulted in an increase 
in the cost of all items of forest products, not much 
attention was paid by business interests, excepting by 
a far-seeing few, to the necessity for a conservative 
policy about the forest supply. Happily, before too 
late, there has been an awakening, the credit for which 
is due to the persistent efforts of those present. 

On the part of the railroads, this awakening has 
taken the practical form of preservation of cross ties 
and other timbers so as to lengthen the life of the 
wood ; to a greater use of metal, stone and cement ; to 
the wiser cutting, handling and seasoning of ties and 
timber, and to a utilization of different kinds of wood 
for ties, and what is true with the railroad is also true 
with other important business interests dependent upon 
wood for their successful operation. 



American Forest Congress 5 if 

This is something in which, as you will all know, 
this country is somewhat behind Europe, but I am 
glad to say nearly all the railroads in the last few years 
are thinking, and thinking very hard, on the subject, 
because the problem of how to support their rails is 
more perplexing each year. 

If the American railroads are to continue to be the 
efficient commercial tool that they now are ; to continue 
the very low average rates, and the high scale of wages 
now in effect, the question of the increased cost of ties 
and timber is of greater and greater importance to 
those who pay transportation charges ; to wage-earners, 
and to railroad owners. 

The fact that so many large interests are so depen- 
dent upon the wise handling of the forests remaining 
in the country, will insure a greater cooperation in the 
future than there has been in the past between those 
who cut down and use the forests for money-making 
purposes, and those who are studying the subject in 
order to safeguard the interests of those v/ho come 
after us. 

This cooperation is very necessary, and the work of 
the National Government, the various State Govern- 
ments, the state agricultural colleges, and the forest 
schools should, so far as possible, be along the same 
lines. 

With such ooperation I have faith that the ingenuity, 
perseverance and ability of the American man will 
solve this important question; and that, in spite of a 
somewhat lavish use of our forest resources in the 
past, we shall be able, by a greater care in the future, 
and by a more extended use of materials, other than 
wood, preserve for ourselves and for those that come 
after us, the forests of the country for business, health, 
and pleasure. 



PART II. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE PUBLIC FOREST 
LANDS TO IRRIGATION 



THE CLOSE RELATION BETWEEN FOR- 
ESTRY AND IRRIGATION 

BY 
GUY ELLIOT MITCHELL 

Secretary, the National Irrigation Association 

'"T HE connection between a comprehensive system 
of forestry and irrigation is a somewhat local 
though vital one, directly affecting as it does but one- 
half of the territory of the United States — the arid 
region. Forestry itself, as affecting water supply, is 
a broad national question, as well as a local one in each 
state and drainage basin. The forest movement, there- 
fore, has a country-wide interest, and whereas Cali- 
fornia is alarmed over the destruction of its mountain 
forests and the drying up of its streams which form 
the life-blood of its communities, Pennsylvania and 
New England are only to a less extent exercised over 
the threatened danger to their water sources, necessary 
for city and town supplies and for power development. 

In the Western half of the United States the destruc- 
tion of forests has an intimate, immediate bearing 
upon the capacity of the States to sustain population, 
for population results from irrigation ; irrigation de- 
pends upon water supply and the water supply is the 
melting snows caught and held by the forests clothing 
the great mountain chains of the Sierras and the 
Rockies — nature's great storage reservoirs. 

Three things are necessary to insure a maximum 
water supply for irrigation : 

First, prevent wholesale destruction of timbered 
watersheds. 

c 



54 Prockkdings o:^ the 

Second, substitute therefor a rational system of 
timber cutting; and, 

Third, reforest and afforest lands where the value 
of the increased water supply will warrant this most 
advanced and expensive feature of the American forest 
plan. 

The first of these should receive immediate consid- 
eration; the present tremendous waste should be 
checked and the second part of the plan promptly 
adopted before it is too late, and the third and most 
expensive part becomes the only remedy. 

So far as the Government timber lands are con- 
cerned, aggregating many millions of acres outside 
of the national forest reserves, for every thousand 
dollars now expended in carrying out the first two 
provisions of the plan — where all that is required is 
to properly direct timber cutting to husband the re- 
sources of nature, new growth — it is probably a con- 
servative estimate to make that a million dollars, and 
much time will be required to attain the same results 
through forest planting. 

This latter creative plan while less pressing and 
vital than the need of conserving what we already 
have, holds out wonderful eventual possibilities. The 
statement of Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Forester, United 
States Department of Agriculture, at the Twelfth Na- 
tional Irrigation Congress, at El Paso, Texas, Novem- 
ber, 1904, that experim.ents and the observations of 
years have proven that enormous areas of the West 
can, by systematic planting, be made into forests with 
the effect of restoring streams which have disappeared, 
possibly thousands of years ago, and of creating en- 
tirely new streams, holds out startling and almost 
unrealizable probabilities for future agricultural devel- 
opment to the forest and water student. 



American Forest Congress 55 

What is needed to-day, immediately, is vastly more 
strength to the arm of American forestry for the 
vigorous prosecution of its well matured plans to 
save what we now possess. The two greatest problems 
before this country to-day, well worthy the expenditure 
by the nation of millions and hundreds of millions of 
dollars instead of thousands and hundreds of thou- 
sands, are forestry and irrigation. They will return such 
expenditure, principal and interest, many times over, 
and the carrying out of such a policy will demonstrate 
its wisdom within the present generation. It is a 
question demanding our immediate consideration, and 
is not, as many patriotic citizens seem to believe, a 
remote problem w^hich must be solved in the distant 
future. I make no careless, ill-considered statement 
when I assert that these two correlated subjects form 
the most important question before the United States 
to-day and through whose wise solution the country 
has more to gain than from any other resource, within 
her borders or over seas. For can anything be of 
greater import than the creation of an empire within 
our midst which will support a population as great 
as that of the entire country to-day? 

The work of the Bureau of Forestry of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture has come, within the past two 
years, to be recognized as a practical, hard-headed 
business proposition. When the present Forester, Mr. 
Gifford Pinchot, took up this work he gave lumbermen 
credit for shrewdness and ability; he did not claim to 
know more than they about lumbering; but he did 
contend that lumbering could be carried on profitably 
without forest destruction. Later, when criticised for 
his enthusiasm in the setting apart of forest reserves 
and his supposed substitution of practical lumbering 
for the aesthetic considerations, he made the notable 
response ; 



56 Proci:e:dings of the 

''I am not a preserver of trees. I am a cutter-down 
of trees. It is the essence of forestry to have trees 
harvested when they are ripe, and followed by successive 
crops. The human race is not destroyed because the 
individual dies. Every individual must die, but the 
race lives on. So every tree must die, but the forest 
will be extended and multiplied. Yet it by no means 
follows that the face of the land shall be denuded, so 
that the character of the watersheds shall be altered, 
with the resulting injury to streams and to agricultural 
lands depending upon them." 

The United States is quite fortunate in the posses- 
sion of Gifford Pinchot as Government Forester; the 
President is fortunate in having a man to carry out 
this advanced forest policy, a man who is striving 
solely to conserve one of the greatest of America's 
natural resources, thus erecting to himself and his 
period a monument which will endure for all ages. 

President Roosevelt has uttered some notable truths 
as to the relation of forest preservation to agriculture 
and home building. Speaking at Leland Stanford 
University last year, he said: 'In many parts of 
California the whole future welfare of the State de- 
pends upon the way in which you are able to use your 
water supply ; and the preservation of the forests and 
the preservation of the use of the water are insepara- 
bly connected. Whatever tends to destroy the water 
supply of the Sacramento, the San Gabriel, and the 
other valleys strikes vitally at the welfare of California. 
The forest cover upon the drainage basins of streams 
used for irrigation purposes is of prime importance 
to the interests of the entire State." And, again: 
''Now keep in mind that the whole object of forest pro- 
tection is, as I have said again and again, the making 
and maintaining of prosperous homes. Every phase 



American Forest Congress 57 

of the land policy of the United States is, as it by right 
ought to be, directed to the upbuilding of the home- 
maker. The one sure test of all public land legislation 
should be: Does it help to make and keep prosperous 
homes? If it does, the legislation is good. If it does 
not, the legislation is bad. 

"Certain of our land laws, however beneficent their 
purposes, have been twisted into an improper use, so 
that there have grown up abuses under them by which 
they tend to create a class of men who, under one color 
and another, obtain large tracts of soil for speculative 
purposes, or to rent out to others." 

Two bills are pending in Congress to-day, the pas- 
sage of which will prove a distinct gain to American 
forestry. They are little understood, probably, by 
the American people as a whole, yet it is doubtful if 
there are any pending before Congress fraught with 
greater import to the nation. One has passed the 
House and the other one has passed the Senate. The 
former bill consolidates the entire government forest 
work, now badly divided and cut up among dififerent 
bureaus and divisions, into one bureau under the De- 
partment of Agriculture.* It has the unanimous sup- 
port and approval of various officials, the heads of 
departments and the Executive. It should promptly 
become a law and the country should then stand by 
its Bureau, of Forestry with such support as is neces- 
sary to carry out its forestry plans in the broadest and 
most comprehensive manner, for by doing so it will 
conserve greatly its own wealth. 

The other measure has likewise the unqualified sup- 
port of the President, all forest officials and heads of 
departments. It passed the Senate without a dissent- 

*This bill has since passed Congress and was signed by 
President Roosevelt, February i, 1905. 



58 Proc^e:dings oi^ thk 

ing vote. It provides for the substitution of the timber 
and stone law with a plan to allow the general govern- 
ment to retain title to all its timber lands, but to sell 
the timber thereon under such regulations as will insure 
the perpetual reforestation of these lands, their timber 
cropping, and the preservation of their water supplies. 

Under the present law timber land of great value is 
disposed of by the Government at $2.50 an acre, is 
carelessly and wastefully lumbered so that entire water- 
sheds are denuded of their forest cover, destructive 
fires are allowed to sweep over them leaving them 
bare and unable to retain the moisture upon which 
irrigated communities depend. This law was passed 
to enable settlers to purchase small tracts of timber 
land, presumably adjacent to their homsteads. Its 
provisions have been evaded, as the President inti- 
mates, to such an extent that enormous tracts of land 
have passed into speculative ownership without result- 
ing good to the communities ; in fact, with the utmost 
danger to their prosperity and well being. This 
measure should likewise receive the prompt considera- 
tion of that branch of Congress before which it is 
pending. 

There is yet another law which stands as a great 
menace to forest preservation. It is the forest reserve 
lieu land law, known as lieu land or scrip law. It 
allows the owner of land within the forest reserves to 
exchange that land for other unreserved public land 
of the reserves. Under it vast areas of almost worth- 
less land, in many cases previously denuded of its tim- 
ber by its owners, have been exchanged for the finest 
timber lands in the Northwest. This law should be 
repealed, and where private individuals or corporations 
own land within the forest reserves which they do not 
desire, it should be appraised by the Government and 



Ame:rican F'orest Congress 59 

the cash value paid to the owner of one or two dollars 
an acre, or whatever it may be worth, rather than that 
he should be allowed to exchange it for equal areas of 
our finest timber lands worth $20, $50, and possibly 
$100 an acre. The particularly evil feature of this law 
is that lieu land right is a floating, purchasable com- 
modity, and has resulted in the acquirement of immense 
tracts under single ownership.* 

With these three measures acted upon by Congress 
the nation will emerge from the present area of lumber 
waste and timber land speculation into one of forest 
conservation, husbandry, and thrift which will result 
in both timber supplies and water resources for the 
coming generations, where the present outlook indi- 
cates timber famine and vast loss to irrigation. 

*The lieu land law was repealed by Congress in March of 
this year. 



FORESTS AND RESERVOIRS 

BY 
F. H. NEWELL 

Chief Engineer, United States Reclamation Service 

A LL are aware that the Government, through the 
operation of the Reclamation Act of June 17, 
1902, is building large irrigation works throughout 
the West. The fund for that purpose now amounts 
to about $25,000,000. These works, national in char- 
acter, are being constructed as rapidly as possible. The 
protection of these works, their future use, their sta- 
bility through all time, is largely dependent upon the 
proper treatment of the forests upon the mountains 
above the reservoirs. In fact there is hardly a project 
now under consideration whose future success is not 
closely joined with the questions of the best use and 
preservation of the forests and to a less degree of the 
grazing land immediately adjacent. These works are 
being built to last for all time, and if they are to be 
preserved in their best condition, it must be after we 
have solved this question of the best protection and use 
of the forest. 

A number of the delegates present have come from 
the far West. Many others are deeply interested in 
Western development, not only from general con- 
siderations, but because the creation of a home in the 
West means the creation of a home in the manufac- 
turing districts of the East, and possibly the creation 
of a home for a man who is employed by the trans- 
porting interests. The transportation men, so well 
represented at this Congress, have an immediate and 
vital concern in this whole subject of conservation of 



American Forest Congress 6i 

water and, growing out of that, the conservation of 
the forests. 

It is desirable to review briefly something of what is 
going on in the Western States and Territories. Take 
Arizona, for instance : Here the Reclamation Service 
is building a storage dam at Roosevelt, costing probably 
$3,000,000. When built it will enable the creation of 
homes for many thousands of people, and render pro- 
ductive a large area now desert. In California is the 
Yuma project, which it is expected will be begun soon ; 
and also another project in the northern part of the 
State, around the Klamath lakes. For the protection of 
an Arizona reservoir a forest reserve must be had above 
the reservoir in order to prevent, as far as possible, the 
washing of soil which follows upon the destruction of 
tree growth. In Colorado is the Gunnison tunnel, the 
contract for which is being let now — a tunnel 30,000 
feet in length, to take water from the Gunnison River 
into the Uncompahgre Valley, a broad, fertile, but arid 
plain. The head waters of that river must be pro- 
tected in part by the forests as well as by reservoirs. 

In Idaho, the same is true ; there on the Snake River 
a dam is being built across the stream. Its utility for 
all time depends largely upon the good treatment ac- 
corded to the head waters of that stream. This matter 
of the development of the West is not a State question, 
but is interstate. We must build reservoirs in Wyo- 
ming ; we must conserve forests in Wyoming to benefit 
the arid plains of Idaho. For Western Kansas, Mr. 
Reeder has already spoken briefly of the great interest 
in irrigation, and although having no forests, yet the 
rivers that come into Kansas, as the Arkansas, depend 
partly for their continuity of flow on proper treatment 
of the woodlands on the mountains in the central part 
of Colorado. 



62 Proceedings oi^ the 

In Montana are similar conditions. The Yellow- 
stone River, rising in Wyoming, derives a large water 
supply from wooded areas which must be protected in 
order that the flow of that stream may be properly 
safeguarded. In Nebraska, the conditions are similar 
to those in Western Kansas. The North and South 
Platte Rivers coming into that State, are dependent 
for their waters, in part at least, upon the flow from 
the high mountains of Central Colorado and Southern 
Wyoming. In Nevada is under construction one of 
the largest irrigation works in the world, taking water 
from Truckee River over into the Carson. The in- 
tegrity of that great system, which will cost at least 
$3,000,000 and possibly $5,000,000 when it is com- 
pleted, will depend largely on the conservation of the 
forest growth in the State of California; there again 
is the same question of protection of forests in one 
State to secure the prosperity of the homes in another. 
In New Mexico is being built on Hondo River, a tribu- 
tary of Pecos River, a reservoir which receives its 
waters from forest reserves in central New Mexico. 
There is in contemplation a great work on the Rio 
Grande, interstate and international in character; that 
river in turn must be reservoired and every drop of 
water held. Here again comes the question, how are 
the head waters of that river in Colorado to be best 
protected for the waters which are to be used in Colo- 
rado, New Mexico, Texas, and Old Mexico? 

North Dakota is far out on the plains and there are 
few forests in the State. The great river of the State 
is the Missouri, rising in Montana. This stream de- 
pends largely for its flow on the waters from forests at 
its head. South Dakota has a mountain region of its 
own and a forest reserve in the Black Hills. 
Coming from the Black Hills are streams, not very 



American Forest Congress 63 

large but of very great importance in the development 
of that State. On the Belle Fourche River there is 
being planned a large irrigation system irrigating vast 
tracts of land north of the Black Hills, lands which 
will form homes for thousands of families. Again 
we have the same old story that we must go back to 
the forest reserves to see that the head waters are pro- 
tected. 

In Oregon we know of the wonderful extent of the 
forest reserves and of the value of the timber, but 
even in that State we are asking for better and larger 
attention to the forest reserves, especially in the Blue 
Mountain region and particularly on the head waters 
of the Malheur, Umatilla, and other streams where 
development to a high degree will be possible. Okla- 
homa, out on the plains, has, it is true, but little forested 
area, but even there, are questions of water storage and 
of the best protection of a little reserve in the Wichita 
Mountains. In Utah the same is true. There we are 
studying Utah Lake and the best use of waters' which 
flow through it and out into the Jordan ; also the best 
use of Bear Lake. Here we come back again to the 
question, What is Mr. Pinchot going to do with the 
forest reserves? Mr. Pinchot and the engineers of 
the Reclamation Service are working hand in hand on 
all the large projects which look to home-making and 
upbuilding of the country. 

In Washington the same condition exists. The 
Palouse project, in that State, is for storage of water 
at the head of the Palouse River and for taking it out 
to reclaim a sandy desert above Pasco. This will be 
made one of the most productive sections in the United 
States. Last, but not least, we come to Wyoming, the 
central, the pivotal State of the arid region ; a State of 
great elevation. There we must have forest reserves to 



64 Proceedings of the 

protect the head waters of the Missouri and Yellow- 
stone, the head waters of the Platte and all of the innu- 
merable streams which flow, not only to the East, but 
also into the Snake and into the Green Rivers to the 
South. 

In each of these States is a great irrigation project 
under construction or under consideration. In Wyo- 
ming is a large reservoir on the North Platte River — 
the Pathfinder. The contract for the outlet tunnel will 
be let in a few days. And in the northern part of Wyo- 
ming is a project on the Shoshone River with the 
object of reclaiming vast tracts of arid land. 

I have cited these cases to illustrate the fact that 
forest protection has an important practical and defi- 
nite value, not only to the people of the West, but to 
the people of the whole country in the upbuilding and 
making of homes and the creation of a large population 
which will support itself from the soil. And which will 
be drawing upon the East for its manufactures and 
drawing upon all the transportation interests to carry 
these manufactures backward and forward. 

Those of you who are interested in the details of this 
great work of reclamation are cordially invited to go 
into the details with the engineers of the Reclamation 
Service who represent the different States and who are 
now holding a conference to consider some of the 
larger problems of construction and of management. 
These works are not built as are those constructed 
under such appropriations as that provided for in the 
River and Harbor Bill. They must be built, on the 
contrary, with the idea of repaying to the government 
the cost of construction. This involves a financial 
problem — that of getting back into the reclamation 
fund the amount which each project has cost. If it 
has cost $3,000,000 dollars and will reclaim 100,000 



American Forest Congress 65 

acres of land, then each acre of land must be assessed 
thirty dollars, and that thirty dollars must be paid back 
in ten annual installments of three dollars each. Mean- 
while the fund is increasing, but every dollar of it must 
be guarded and the engineers in charge of the work 
must be business men and financial men as well, and 
see that the expenditures they make are such that the 
money will get back without undue hardship to the 
people who will obtain that land and cultivate it. 

These great works belong to the National Govern- 
ment, but when the distribution system is paid for in 
the ten annual installments, it will be turned over to 
the people who own the land and cultivate it and will 
be operated by them very much as a school district is 
operated, or any other public corporation or munici- 
pality. During the time of construction and operation 
of these works up to the period when they are paid for, 
the engineers who have built them will see that they are 
operated properly and will gradually pass the control 
over to the communities until ultimately the community 
will assume full control. By that time the future 
owners will be educated to a true appreciation of the 
great works and to a realization of what it means to 
them to conserve the forests of the head waters. 

The organization which is carrying on that work 
known as the Reclamation Service, has been created 
under the Geological Survey in order to take advantage 
of the good precedents and business-like ability of that 
organization. All of us appreciate the enormous bene- 
fit it is to have, the protection of the older organization 
which has been in existence a quarter of a century and 
which has been conducted without favoritism and with- 
out reference to politics. 

Building up on that foundation and having the pro- 
tection of good precedents and good methods, we are 



66 Proceedings o^ the 

endeavoring to develop a strong organization. We ask 
you who are interested in forestry and in all its prac- 
tical developments and ramifications, to stand with us 
and give us your assistance to keep and protect this 
young organization along the lines of good, hard busi- 
ness sense. Not only for the sake of the development 
of the country, not only for the sake of the reclamation 
of the West, but for the good example and encourage- 
ment it affords to other organizations of the Govern- 
ment, such as the Forest Service, to pursue the same 
lines in carrying on the work on a thoroughly sound 
financial basis, of getting back what the service costs 
and not making it a burden upon the country. 

It is of the highest importance to demonstrate to the 
public and to Congress, the fact that public business 
can be transacted on business lines. There are many 
good men who scoff at the idea that the public service 
can be conducted on a sound basis of that kind, but I 
believe it is possible for the Forestry and for the 
Reclamation Services to be carried on as a business 
proposition and pay for themselves and not call upon 
the Federal Treasury for a cent. And to upbuild and 
utilize all the resources, if you business men, who are 
citizens who are interested in good government, will 
stand with us and insist that these sound principles be 
carried out. 



RELATION OF FOREST COVER TO 
STREAM FLOW 

BY 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT 

Supervising Engineer, United States Reclamation Service 

nPHE relation of rainfall to run-off is very uncertain, 
depending upon the nature of the storms, whether 
gentle showers or violent rains; the steepness of the 
drainage basin and its covering, and whether the pre- 
cipitation is snow or rain. It has been found that in 
the districts where the forest cover is small the output 
of the basin occurs in violent floods of short duration. 
Because these floods are violent, and of large volume, 
and owing to the fact that the soil of the drainage 
basins is not hold together by a network of roots, ex- 
tensive erosions occur in these barren basins and the 
stream carries much silt in suspension. Where the 
basin is covered by forest, the mat of twigs and leaves 
which covers the ground is an absorbent sponge, 
retaining in itself large quantities of water and pre- 
venting evaporation from the underlying soil. This 
permits of a holding back of the floods and the gradual 
draining off of the water, thus largely accomplishing 
the purpose of regulating reservoirs. 

A striking example of the output of a barren, tree- 
less, drainage basin is shown in the case of Queen 
Creek, Arizona, for the year 1896. This stream dis- 
charges only in violent freshets, recurring usually as 
great flood-waves, subsiding almost as rapidly as they 
arise. By making from two to three current-meter 
measurements of each of these freshets, and keeping 



68 Proce:edings o? thl: 

an hourly record of the gauge-height, the discharge 
was approximated. The floods are usually not to ex- 
ceed twelve hours in duration. During a larger por- 
tion of the year the channel is nearly dry. Queen 
Creek rises in the mountains to the southeast of 
Phoenix, and flows in a generally southwesterly direc- 
tion, losing itself in the desert north of the Gila River 
Reservation. The area of the drainage basin is 143 
square miles, of which 61 per cent, is above an elevation 
of 3,000 feet, and 39 per cent below that elevation. 
The annual discharge is approximately 10,000 acre 
feet. The basin is almost entirely bare, there being a 
few pinion trees and very little brush or grass. The 
following table of discharge for the 3^ear 1896 for 
Queen Creek is taken from the Eighteenth Annual 
Report of the Geological Survey, Part IV, Hydrog- 
raphy. It represents a typical year's output : 

Estimated Monthly Discharge of Queen Creek at Whit- 
low's, Arizona. Drainage Area, 143 Square Miles. 

Discharge in Second feet. 

Month, 1896. Max. Min. Mean. 

January 2 2.0 2.0 

February 2 2.0 2.0 

March 2 2.0 2.0 

April 2 i.o 1. 5 

May I 1.0 1.0 

June I 1.0 1.0 

July 9,000 0.0 121.6 

August 1,433 0.6 13.1 

September 3,428 0.5 17.1 

October 1,188 0.5 13.3 

November 80 0.6 1.3 

December 207 0.6 2.0 

9,000 .0 15. 



American Forest Congress 69 

In contrast with the Gila River and Queen Creek in 
Arizona, is the discharge of Cedar Creek Washington, 
for the year 1897. The point of measurement of this 
stream is at CHfford's Bridge, in Section 19, Township 
22 North, Range 7 East, Willamette Meridian. The 
drainage area is estimated to be 143 square miles, and 
it, therefore, is the same as the area of the basin of 
Queen Creek. The basin of Cedar Creek lies on the 
western slope of the Cascade Mountains. It is heavily 
timbered and, in addition, the ground is covered with 
a very heavy growth of ferns and moss. The precipi- 
tation for the year 1897 was about 93 inches in the 
lower portion of the basin, and is estimated to have 
been as great as 150 inches on the mountain summits. 
The rainfall of the Queen Creek basin is estimated to 
be about 15 inches. The maximum flood discharge 
in 1896 on Queen Creek was 9,000 cubic feet per 
second, and the maximum flood discharge on Cedar 
Creek in 1897 was 3,601 cubic feet per second. The , 
mean discharge for Queen Creek was 15 cubic feet 
per second, and for Cedar Creek 1,089 cubic feet per 
second. While Queen Creek is frequently dry, the 
minimum discharge of Cedar Creek during the period 
in question was never less than 27 per cent of the 
mean for the year. These two streams represent 
extreme types. The radical difference in their char- 
acter is believed to be largely due to the difference in 
forest cover. The discharge of Cedar Creek for the 
year 1897 is believed to be fairly representative. The 
following table of discharge is taken from the Nine- 
teenth Annual Report of the Geological Survey, Part 
IV, Hydrography. 

It will be noted that the vertical scale showing the 
discharge is twice as large on the Cedar Creek diagram 
as on that of Queen Creek. If they were on the same 
scale the contrast would be greater : 



yo Proceedings o^ the 

Estimated Monthly Discharge oe Cedar River Near Seat- 
tle, Washington. Drainage Area, 143 Square Miles. 

Discharge in Second feet. 

Month, 1897. Max. Min. Mean. 

January 2,812 815 1,430 

February 2,415 823 1,303 

March 1,366 723 901 

April 2,752 790 1,599 

May 2,143 939 1,562 

June 1,410 780 1,060 

July 2,284 572 1,135 

August 561 342 427 

September 418 311 350 

October 433 294 339 

November 3,155 323 i,3i8 

December 3,601 674 1,639 

Total 3,601 294 1,089 



The amount of solid matter carried by a stream 
is a very serious problem in connection with the 
construction of storage reservoirs thereon. The most 
astonishing stories are told of volumes of sediment 
carried by the rivers of southern Arizona from their 
barren drainage basins. It is said that when these 
floods first appear, discharged off of ranges that have 
been travelled by the large herds of cattle in quest of 
grass, the soil which has been exposed to the direct 
action of the sun, being exceedingly light and dry, is 
washed off in quantities that are enormous. In order 
to determxine the amount of silt in the Gila River at 
The Buttes, which stream has a similar basin and 
regimen to that of Queen Creek, the Geological Survey 
has made observations by taking samples of the water 
daily, and permitting the mud to settle in graduated 
tubes. The amount of mud is then determined by 



American Forest Congress 71 

reading its height upon the graduations. The mud 
which is deposited has then been treated in the case 
of numerous samples to a temperature of 212 degrees 
Fah., and the final amount of solid matter determined 
by weight. Observations were continued from July 
29, 1895, to December 31, of the same year. Begin- 
ning on January i, 1899, and continuing until July 
31, 1899, similar observations were made at the same 
station, the amount of mud and solid matter being 
determined as previously. During the first period the 
volume of water discharged at The Buttes was 360,523 
acre feet, and it was found that this contained 37,984 
acre feet of silt by volume wet. This reduced to 7,704 
acre feet of solids. The average amount of light sedi- 
ment during this first period was 10^ per cent by 
volume wet, and the amount of solids a little over 2 per 
cent. The total amount of water discharged during 
the second period in 1899 v/as 118,981 acre feet, which 
contained 1.6 per cent of solids, or 8 per cent of mud 
by volume wet. Frequent observations were made, 
showing 20 per cent of silt by volume wet during the 
high stages of the stream, and in one instance 2"] per 
cent was observed. The average amount of silt for the 
twelve months' observation was 10 per cent by volume 
wet, and the amount of solids 2 per cent. No other 
stream in the United States is known to carry such a 
high per cent of sediment. This is in striking contrast 
with the clear streams of our northern forested basins. 
The water supply used for domestic purposes from 
Cedar Creek, Washington, does not require filtering or 
settlement. 

The serious nature of this silt problem can readily 
be appreciated by those who have studied the storage 
of water for irrigation. It is probably the gravest of 
all the engineering problems related thereto. Forestry 



72 PrOC^E:dINGS 01^ THE 

should assist greatly in removing difficulties of this 
nature. 

Mr. Marsten Manston made certain stream measure- 
ments on the Yuba River, California, for the Geological 
Survey. In an article, entitled "Features and Water 
Rights of Yuba River, California," Bulletin No. lOO, 
United States Department of Agriculture, in discussing 
the stream flow from certain portions of this basin, he 
makes the following interesting comparison between 
a forested and denuded basin. Both of these catch- 
ment areas are situated on the western slope of the 
Sierra Nevada, adjoin each other, and have exposures 
of marked similarity. 

"On the south fork of the north fork we have a 
watershed area of 139 square miles, which was gaged 
on September 19, 1900, after three successive seasons 
of deficient rainfall, and gave a minimum run-off of 
113 cubic feet per second or 0.8 cubic foot per second 
per square mile. This area is well covered with timber 
and brush, and in one hundred and twenty days gives 
a minimum run-off of 1,441,152,000 cubic feet. The 
drainage basin of the north fork is more heavily 
timbered than the basin of the other forks, and conse- 
quently has a deeper soil, and although only one-tenth 
the total drainage area, it furnishes 75 per cent of the 
low-water flow of the entire drainage basin above 
Parks Bar. 

"On the south fork, above Lake Spaulding, there is 
a watershed of 120 square miles, which has heretofore 
been described as comparatively bare of timber, and 
the timbered areas which once existed have been cut 
off. The run-off of this area is practically nothing 
for one hundred and twenty days each year, due to 
this absence of forests and brush. If this area were 
afforested and gave a minimum run-off of 0.8 cubic 



American Forest Congress 73 

foot per second per square mile, the discharge would 
be 100 cubic feet per second, or equivalent to 1,036,- 
800,000 cubic feet effective storage capacity, a dis- 
charge more than equivalent to one-half the storage 
capacity of all the reservoirs above Lake Spaulding 
dam. These aggregate 1,375,000,000 cubic feet, and 
the low-water discharge of 100 cubic feet per second 
for one hundred and twenty days is equivalent to a 
storage capacity of 1,036,000,000 cubic feet. As the 
basis of the above estimate is the extreme low-water 
discharge, it is safe to assume that by afforesting the 
watershed, this costly and extensive system of reser- 
voirs might be safely drawn upon for double their 
present capacity. When this reasoning is applied to 
the entire 1,357 square miles, instead of to small 
fractions thereof, the force of the argument becomes 
more apparent. 

"It would appear from the foregoing that the solu- 
tion of the problem of storage of flood waters is not 
in the retention of a small percentage of the storm 
waters behind dams, but in applying storage over the 
entire watershed by the systematic protection and 
extension of forest and brush-covered areas." 

Professor James W. Toumey, a collaborator of the 
Bureau of Forestry, has selected certain small and 
adjoining drainage basins in the San Bernardino 
Mountains in a portion of the catchment area proposed 
to be utilized by the Arrowhead Reservoir Company. 
Throughout this area this corporation for a term of 
years has been making exhaustive hydrographic studies 
of the available water supply. A large number of rain 
gauges have been established and stream measurements 
are carefully made over weirs by skilled engineers. 
Automatic clock registering devices have been installed 
to give a continuous record of the flow at these various 



74 Proceedings of the 

stream gauging stations. It is proposed to divert the 
water flowing from a number of these small mountain 
basins which are situated on the northerly slope of the 
San Bernardino Range by means of gravity canals and 
tunnels to the southern side of the range and into the 
San Bernardino Valley. This Arrowhead Reservoir 
Company has placed its hydrographic data at the 
disposal of the Bureau of Forestry, which organiza- 
tion made a forest study in connection therewith. The 
data that is presented by Professor Toumey is perhaps 
the most precise and definite information on the sub- 
ject of related stream flow to forest cover that we 
have so far been favored with in the West. His 
conclusions, while they were to be expected, are grati- 
fying in their definiteness. We can do no better than 
to quote from Professor Toumey in extenso : 

''Because rainfall is most abundant where forests 
grow, many believe that forests exert an important 
influence on the amount of precipitation. A more 
reasonable inference, however, is that rainfall is the 
great factor in controlling the distribution and density 
of forests. 

"Precipitation occurs whenever the air is suddenly 
cooled below the dew-point. The most effective cause 
of this is the expansion of air on ascending. This 
upward movement is caused very largely by cyclonic 
storms. Whether forests have any appreciable effect 
in cooling the air to below the dew-point is uncertain. 
From the known effect of forests on the temperature 
and relative humidity of the air, it is reasonable to 
infer that they may have some effect, at least to a 
small degree, and consequently that they have some 
influence in increasing precipitation. The present evi- 
dence, however, derived from many series of observa- 
tions conducted in Europe and elsewhere, is so con- 



Ame:rican Forest Congress 75 

flicting that a definite answer to this question, having 
the stamp of scientific accuracy, is not possible. 

"In a careful study of the behavior of the stream 
flow on several small catchment areas in the San Ber- 
nardino Mountains, it has been found that the effect 
of the forest in decreasing surface flow on small 
catchment basins is enormous, as shown in the follow- 
ing tables, where three well timbered areas are com- 
pared with a non-timbered one : 

Precipitation and Run-off During December, 1899. 

Run-off Run-off in 

per square percentage of 

mile. precipitation. 

Acre feet. Percent. 

36- 3 

72,-^ 6 

70— 6 

312+ 40 

"This is the stream discharge during a month of 
unusually heavy precipitation. 

"At the beginning of the rainy season, in early 
December, the soil on all four of these basins was 
very dry as a result of the long dry season. The 
accumulation of litter, duff, humus, and soil on the 
forest-covered catchment areas absorbed 95 per cent, 
of the unusually large precipitation. On the non- 
forested area only 60 per cent, of the precipitation 
was absorbed, although the rainfall was much less. 



Area of 


Condition 


Pre- 


catchment 


as to 


cipita- 


basin. 


cover. 


tion. 


Sq. miles. 




Inches. 


070 


Forested. 


19+ 


1.05 


Forested. 


19+ 


1.47 


Forested. 


19+ 


•53 


Non-forested. 


13- 



76 Procke:dings 01? the 

RainfalIv and RuN-oFif During January, February, and 
March, 1900, 

Area of Condition Pre- Run-off Run-off in 



catchment 


as to 


cipita- 


per square 


percentage of 


basin. 


cover. 


tion. 


mile. 


precipitation, 


Sq. miles. 




Inches. 


Acre feet. 


Per cent. 


0.70 


Forested. 


24 


452- 


35 


1.05 


Forested. 


24 


428- 


ZZ 


1.47 


Forested. 


24 


557- 


43 



.53 Non-forested. 16 828- 95 

"The most striking feature of this table as compared 
with the previous one is the uniformly large run-off 
as compared with the rainfall. This clearly shows 
the enormous amount of water taken up by a dry soil, 
either forested or non-forested, as compared with 
one already nearly filled to saturation. During the 
three months here noted, on the forested basins about 
three-eighths of the rainfall appeared in the run-off. 

Rapidity 01? Decrease in Run-ofe After the Close oe the 
Rainy Season. 

Area of Condition Pre- April May June 

catchment as to cipita- run-off run-off run-off 

basin. cover. tion. per sq. m. persq.m. per sq. m. 

Sq.niiles. Inches. Acre feet. Acre feet. Acre feet. 

0.70 Forested. 1.6 153- 66— 25- 

1.05 Forested. 1.6 146— 70— 30— 

1.47 Forested. 1.6 166- 74- 30— 

.53 Non-forested. i 56— 2— 

*'The above table clearly shows the importance of 
forests in sustaining the flow of mountain streams. 
The three forested catchment areas, which, during 
December, experienced a run-off of but 5 per cent, 
of the heavy precipitation for that month and which 



American Poorest Congress 



77 



during January, February, and March of the following 
year had a run-off of approximately 37 per cent, of 
the total precipitation, experienced a well-sustained 
stream flow three months after the close of the rainy 
season. The non-forested catchment area, which, 
during December, experienced a run-off of 40 per 
cent, of the rainfall, and which during the three fol- 
lowing months had a run-off of 95 per cent, of the 
precipitation, experienced a run-off in April (per 
square mile) of less than one-third of that from the 
forested catchment areas, and in June the flow from 
the non-forested area had ceased altogether. 

Annum. Rainfai,!, and Run-off on Forested and Non- 
forested Catchment Areas in the San Ber- 
nardino Mountains^ Caufornia. 



Area of Condition 



Pre- 



Run-off Run-off in 



catchment 


as to 


cipita- 


per square 


percentage of 


basin. 


cover. 


tion. 


mile. 


precipitation, 


Sq. miles. 




Inches. 


Acre feet. 


Per cent. 


0.70 


Forested. 


46 


731 


28 


1.05 


Forested. 


46 


756 


30 


1.47 


Forested. 


46 


904 


3^ 


.53 


Non-forested. 


33 


1,192 


69 



"In conclusion, it may be said that although the 
forest may have, on the whole, but little appreciable 
effect in increasing the rainfall and the annual run-off, 
its economic importance in regulating the flow of 
streams is beyond computation. The great indirect 
value of the forest is the effect which it has in pre- 
venting wind and water erosion, thus allowing the soil 
on hills and mountains to remain where it is formed, 
and in other ways providing an adequate absorbing 
medium at the sources of the water courses of the 



78 Proceedings oe the 

country. It is the amount of water that passes into 
the soil, not the amount of rainfall, that makes a region 
garden or desert." 

The drainage basin of the Sacramento River in- 
cludes the greater part of northern California. It has 
been occupied by Anglo-Saxon settlers for the last 
fifty years. During the first portion of the American 
occupation of this State, sea-going vessels are reported 
to have proceeded up stream as far as the present city 
of Sacramento. The tidal range of the river v^as 
observed also at this point. Placer mining was the 
first industry. This work consisted in washing the 
oriferous gravels found along the western foothills of 
the Sierra Nevadas. The resulting debris was dis- 
charged into the streams and has to a very material 
extent filled their channels, so that to-day the head 
of tidal water is many miles below Sacramento, near 
the upper end of Grand Island, and only flat bottom 
river steamboats are able to ascend the Sacramento 
River as far as the city of that name. This stream 
condition has been still further aggravated by the 
destruction of extensive areas of forest, both by fire, 
lumbering, and sheep grazing. Yet the lumber in- 
dustry is but in its infancy in this section, and plans 
are being perfected to cut down great areas of virgin 
forest. Extensive forest reserves have been provis- 
ionally set aside, covering most of the remaining tim- 
bered portions of the basin. These contemplated re- 
serves have been greeted with a storm of public protest 
from central and northern California that has been 
hard to allay. In February, 1904, northern Califor- 
nia was visited by heavy rain storms. While the 
precipitation was great, according to the statement of 
Professor McAdie, of the Weather Bureau, it was by 
no means the heaviest rain which has occurred in this 



American Forest Congress 79 

section, and it was one that could reasonably be ex- 
pected to be exceeded in violence in the future. How- 
ever, with the combined conditions of reduced forest 
cover and filled river channels, a flood condition was 
produced in the Sacramento Valley last February 
which has no known equal in the previous history of 
the State. Fully 800,000 acres of valley lands were 
submerged and the damages are estimated to have 
reached into the millions. All this is in spite of the 
fact that over twenty million ($20,000,000) dollars 
had been expended in the construction of levees to 
prevent these overflow conditions. A great State con- 
vention was called in San Francisco to consider the 
disaster that threatened the commonwealth. Eminent 
engineers have been brought to California from the 
lower Mississippi basin and elsewhere in the East to 
study this great overflow problem. Organizations 
have been perfected to urge, if not demand, both from 
the State and from the nation, relief from impending 
disaster. It is contemplated that a comprehensive 
levee system must be constructed the entire length 
of the valley at enormous expense. 

What a beautiful assemblage of contradictions this 
situation presents to the forester ! A great intelligent 
State with popular sentiment, at least in the injured 
section, set against the creation of forest reserves in 
this basin ! The assemblage of conventions and engi- 
neers to devise plans to prevent flood overflow at a 
contemplated expenditure of millions. Doubtless with 
the channels of the stream in the condition that they 
now present a levee system will be required, but the 
greatest and most lasting preventative for these con- 
ditions would be the adequate protection of the forest 
reserves. 

It may be stated that while there is no definite scien- 



8o Proce:e:dings of the: 

tific information that forests increase rainfall, yet we 
have certain striking instances presented where the 
rainfall is greater on adjacent forested areas than on 
those that are denuded. At least in the arid regions 
it may be stated that the total annual output from a de- 
forested drainage basin is greater than from a tim- 
bered area, but that the regimen of the stream is dis- 
tinctly to the disadvantage of all who are interested 
in the use of the watered resources of the country, 
whether he be navigator, irrigator, or water-power 
investor. From the denuded area the floods are 
greater and the drought is more intense. To remedy 
this condition, one naturally turns to the storage reser- 
voir for relief, yet even in this extremity one is con- 
fronted with adverse conditions. The violent flood 
from the bare basin rushing through the mountains 
carries with it eroded sediment, which it deposits in 
the first pool of still water that it encounters. The 
result is the reduction of the storage capacity of the 
reservoirs along its course. Forests are the natural 
and greatest storage reservoirs and regulators of water 
supply. On few streams do we find reservoir capaci- 
ties even approximating the total annual output of 
the drainage basins above them. Accepting the facts 
as outlined above, the great importance of preserving 
the forests, particularly in the semi-arid regions of 
our country, is most manifest. In southern California, 
Arizona, and New Mexico particularly, we are so 
closely bordering on a condition of desert that when 
the forest is once destroyed the difliculty of reproduc- 
ing it renders the task well nigh hopeless. We should, 
therefore, all join with the Bureau of Forestry in its 
effort to "save the forests and store the floods." 



RIGHTS OF WAY IN FOREST RESERVES 

BY 
MORRIS BIEN 

Consulting i:ngineer, United States Reclamation Service 

'T'HE Forest Reserve Act of June 4, 1897, contains 
two provisions which affect rights of way within 
the reserves ; namely, that actual settlers residing with- 
in the boundaries of the reserves vshall for purposes of 
egress and ingress, be permitted to construct wagon- 
roads and other improvements necessary to reach their 
homes and utilize their property, under rules and regu- 
lations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, 
and also that all waters on the reserves may be used for 
beneficial purposes under the State laws or under laws 
of the United States and the rules and regulations 
thereunder. 

In the administration of the first of these provisions, 
for wagon-roads and other improvements, the General 
Land Office regulations provide for the construction 
of private wagon-roads and county roads wherever 
they may be found necessary and useful ; no right, 
however, can be acquired upon the public lands for 
such roads as against the United States. No public 
timber, stone, or other material can be taken for the 
construction of such roads, without permission from 
the Secretary of the Interior, the application giving 
necessary details concerning the extent, location, and 
estimated value of the material to be taken. 

The second provision, concerning the use of the 
waters, merely confirms the application to forest re- 



82 Proci:edings of the 

serves of the laws then existing, but did not make ap- 
phcable to such reserves any laws which did not then 
apply to reservations. These laws were of several 
kinds, and provided for rights of way and for irriga- 
tion, electric and other purposes. 

A subsequent act, approved February 15, 1901, pro- 
vides for right of way over forest and other reserva- 
tions in general and certain national parks in Califor- 
nia, for electrical plants, telephone and telegraph lines, 
canals and other water conduits for any beneficial use 
of water. These acts provide that the allowance of 
such rights of way within the reservations shall be 
subject to the approval of the department having 
supervision over them. 

At the time of the passage of the Forest Reserve 
Act, there was no provision for right of way for 
railroads through such reserves. Consequently, it be- 
came necessary for each railroad company desiring to 
cross a reserve to obtain a special act of Congress, and 
during the years 1898 and 1899 several such acts were 
passed. In each of them was incorporated a provision, 
which was first inserted at the instance of the General 
Land Office, that no timber shall be cut by the railroad 
company for any purposes outside the right of way 
actually granted. 

By the act of March 3, 1899 (30 Stat., 1233), au- 
thority is given to the Secretary of the Interior to 
approve rights of way in the form provided by existing 
law, for wagon-roads, railroads, or other highways 
across any forest reservation, when in his judgment 
the public interests would not be injuriously affected. 
From that time on, there was no need for a special 
right-of-way act across a forest reserve. 

Nevertheless, during the session of Congress in 
1901-2, a bill was introduced providing for right of 



American Forest Congress B3 

way for the Central Arizona Railway Company 
through the San Francisco Mountains Forest Reserve 
in Arizona. In reporting upon this bill, the General 
Land Office referred to the legislation of 1899, and 
stated that there was no need of such law, and that it 
would be better for application to be made in the 
regular way, subject to the general regulations in 
force. The bill was, however, passed without change, 
and was presented the President. At this stage, those 
interested in the matter, fearing that it would be vetoed, 
secured the passage of a resolution (x\pril 12, 1902; 
32 Stat., 1767), asking for the return of the bill. This 
was not done, but the bill was vetoed by the President 
April 23, 1902. At the next session of Congress a 
bill of an entirely different character was introduced. 
This provided simply that the company would be 
granted right of way upon compliance with the general 
regulations of the department. Such a bill was of 
no practical use, but it was not objectionable. It be- 
came a law February 25, 1903 (32 Stat., 907). 

Every application for right of way over a forest 
reserve for any purpose is reported on by a forest 
superintendent or supervisor, who is required to make 
a statement in detail upon every point affecting the 
interests of the government in regard to the preserva- 
tion of the reserves. 

A bond is required from the applicant that he will 
pay to the United States, for any and all damage to 
the public lands, timber, natural curiosities, or other 
public property on such reservation, or upon the lands 
of the United States, by reason of such use and occu- 
pation of the reserve, regardless of the cause or circum- 
stances under which such damage may occur. Such 
a bond is required in every case except those of small 
importance, a definite limit being fixed in the regula- 
tions. 



84 Proceedings of the 

The applicant is required, also, to file a stipulation 
that the right of way is not so located as to interfere 
with the proper occupation of the reservation by the 
Government; that no timber w^ill be cut from the 
reserve outside of the right of w^ay; that the applicant 
will remove no timber within the right of way, except 
only such as is rendered necessary by the proper use 
and enjoyment of the privilege; that he will also 
remove from the reservation, or destroy under proper 
safeguards as determined by the General Land Office, 
all standing, fallen, dead timber, as well as all refuse 
cuttings, etc., for such distance on each side of the 
line as may be determined by the General Land Office 
to be esesential for the protection of the reserve from 
fire ; also that the applicant will furnish free of charge 
such assistance in men and materials for fighting fires 
as may be spared without serious injury to the appli- 
cant's business. 

With a careful scrutiny of all applications by forest 
officers on the ground, and a thorough enforcement of 
rules, regulations, and stipulations such as those indi- 
cated, it is believed that the occupation of the reserves 
for these necessary rights of way can be permitted 
without detriment to the Government interests. 

The present laws relating to rights of way upon 
the public lands, as well as upon forest reserves, are 
such as to facilitate the operations of speculators to 
obtain, secure, and retain controlling points for the use 
of water for railroad, irrigation, power, and other pur- 
poses. The railroad and irrigation acts provide for a 
forfeiture at the expiration of five years from the date 
of location, but such forfeiture cannot be declared 
except by Congress or through courts. 

Inasmuch as there are many thousand miles of rail- 
road and irrigation rights of way which are now 



Ame^rican F'orest Congress 85 

subject to forfeiture, the declaration thereof by pro- 
cedure in the courts is practically out of the question, 
except in a few specific cases where the interests of the 
public or of bona fide enterprises demand action. 

It is important, however, for the proper development 
of the entire West, that these abandoned rights of way 
should be cancelled at the earliest possible date, for 
the reason that as soon as any bona fide enterprise is 
started, these rights, which are practically dead, are 
at once revived, and make enormous claims for the 
rights which they hold and which cannot be set aside 
without such delay as to seriously jeopardize the pro- 
posed development. 

Congress should declare the forfeiture of all rights 
of way now subject to forfeiture, and authorize the 
Secretary of the Interior to declare the forfeiture of 
other rights already granted and to be granted in the 
future, upon the expiration of the time allowed for 
construction by the law. 

This, however, would remedy only one feature of 
the difficulty. It would be just as easy, as the laws 
now stand, to tie up these rights, for five years at 
least, in the future. In order to meet this phase of the 
situation, it is recommended that a reasonable charge 
be made for the use of these rights of way upon public 
lands and forest reserves. This charge should be suf- 
ficient to deter the application for these rights merely 
for speculative purposes, and yet not so great as to 
interfere with future development of railroad, irriga- 
tion, and electric enterprises. 

The time has now come when the value of these 
lands to the public is so great that their further disposi- 
tion should be most carefully scrutinized. The great 
increase in recent years in the number of these appli- 
cations shows very impressively the need of such safe- 

D 



86 Proce^kdinGS of Thf: 

guards to protect the interests of the pubHc in the 
future. 

These considerations apply with particular force to 
the forest reserves, because no claim should be allowed 
to attach to lands within them except for actual use 
for public benefit, and it is exceedingly urgent that 
this Congress make a special effort to impress upon 
the Congress of the United States the necessity for 
immediate action along the lines indicated. 



IRRIGATION CONSTRUCTION AND TIM- 
BER SUPPLIES 

BY 

ARTHUR P. DAVIS 

Assistant Chief Engineer, United States Reclamation Service 

'T'HE relation of scientific forest protection and cul- 
ture to irrigation may best be discussed and 
appreciated by considering its importance to the suc- 
cessful operation of the Reclamation Act, which has 
become by the logic of events, the main exponent of 
irrigation development. 

The broad object of that law is the creation under 
irrigation, of the maximum number of prosperous 
homes. These homes will depend in a great degree 
upon the forests, which are secondary in importance 
only to the supply of water and land. 

The main reasons for the economic importance of 
the scientific culture and preservation of the forests, 
are the protection and regulation of the water supply, 
the preservation of the lumber industry, and the con- 
tinuation of the supply of wood for fuel and numerous 
other domestic requirements. In all these the irrigator 
is intensely interested, and all have an important bear- 
ing upon his future prosperity. 

The utility of the forest cover in conserving the 
water supply is generally recognized, and its impor- 
tance is becoming more and more appreciated. The 
protective effect of the mluch of leaves and twigs, and 
the dark coolness of the forest shade, appeal to all as 
beneficial regulators of run-off, and preventatives of 
evaporation. Nor does it require scientific demonstra- 



88 Proceedings oj? the 

tioii to convince the settler of the importance to his 
welfare of a continued lumber and fuel supply. The 
•great value to the settler and the settler's live stock, 
of the shade and shelter afforded by the trees of the 
forest and woodland are fully appreciated. Even the 
aesthetic and sanitary value of forests are not over- 
looked. 

Related to the above is the influence of forests on 
irrigation construction. This may not be obvious to 
the average person, but the tendency of modern con- 
struction is to the use of the more permanent materials, 
less subject than wood to destruction and decay. This 
is facilitated by the development of the useful proper- 
ties of concrete, iron, and steel, and their combinations. 
The Reclamation Service in particular is endeavoring 
to build, "not for a day, but for all time," and the 
wooden gate, the wooden flume, and other structures 
so much in evidence in the past are to be entirely 
superseded by more permanent materials. 

To this end, massive gates of cast iron and bronze, 
set in abutments of concrete, are being introduced. 
Experiments have been made on reinforced concrete 
for use in pressure pipes and flumes, and the wooden 
dam is being superseded by that of concrete, masonry, 
or earth. To the same end the proportion of tunnels 
is increased, underground conduits being the safest and 
most permanent yet devised. 

The effect of such a policy upon the consumption of 
wood is not, however, so great as might be supposed, 
especially in the construction period. The require- 
ments for timber are still very great for piling and 
subaqeous structures to which wood is well adapted, 
and for buildings and the large class of temporary 
structures required on great irrigation works. No 
satisfactory substitute has yet been found for timber in 



Ame:rican Fore:st Congre:ss 89 

tunnels and every structure of concrete requires wooden 
forms. So numerous and so great are the indispensa- 
ble uses of timber in such works, that the existence of 
a supply of timber near a projected work frequently 
has an important bearing upon its feasibility and cost. 
Nor is this fact often appreciated fully. We are ac- 
customed to estimate the utility of a lumber supply 
on the basis of its selling price, rather than of the cost 
of obtaining the supply elsewhere. For example, the 
cost of sawing and hauling timber to the point of use 
on a certain large project in the west is about twenty- 
five ($25.00) dollars per thousand. Were it not for 
the small forest from which this supply is obtained, 
it would be necessary to import lumber from a distance 
at a cost of over fifty ($50.00) dollars per thousand, 
and this represents the real utility of the local supply 
as a factor in the construction. It is not too much to 
say that the feasibility of some important irrigation 
works depends upon the proximity of ample timber 
supplies. 

The development of irrigation will in the future 
lead to the rapid opening and development of timbered 
areas which are now merely in their natural state. 
This fact emphasizes the necessity of placing the forests 
at once under the rigid scientific supervision of trained 
government experts. If left to the manipulation of sel- 
fish interests as in the past, the result will be lavish and 
wasteful use, and probably destruction of the forest. 
Every tree that will make lumber will be cut, the best 
parts hauled away, the branches and part of the trunk 
left on the ground to feed the fires that will soon follow 
and destroy all that the axe has left. Temporary 
profits will be reaped by a few, and the community 
will be robbed of its natural heritage. Eventually, the 
forest must be replanted and restored at enormous 



90 Procei^dings o^ the; 

expenses of time and money, which can all be saved 
by a wise supervision without diminishing the present 
utility of the forest, nor destroying its future value, 
by merely protecting and fostering the tendency of na- 
ture. 

Such policies of protection would have popular sup- 
port, but the local communities have not the means, 
authority, nor skill to insure proper supervision, which 
much be provided by the Government under the policy 
already proposed, the efficacy and wisdom of which 
has been so thoroughly demonstrated both at home 
and abroad. The policy that provided for present 
needs without mortgaging the future. 



FOREST AREAS OF CATCHMENT BASINS 

{Impromptu Address) 

BY 
H. M. WILSON 

United States Geological Survey 

I AM very much interested in one feature of the dis- 
^ cussion that has been brought before you to-day, 
and that is the relation of run-off from catchment 
basins to the forested areas of those basins. There is 
nothing new on this subject, however, which it seems 
to me I can bring before you. I heartily concur in the 
general opinion expressed by two of the speakers, 
Messrs. Lippincott and Davis, upon the effect of forests 
in regulating the discharge of streams and thus adding 
to their usefulness as providers of water for irrigation 
and upon the effect of this regulation in preventing 
disastrous floods which, by eroding the surface of the 
soil, carry vast amounts of sediment to the streams 
below and destroy both them and the surfaces which 
they erode. There are other features, however, of the 
subject of forest influence on water supply which are 
frequently noted in connection with the preservation 
of forests, which it might be well for me to qualify. 
We are familiar with the old-time claim of the effect 
of forests in increasing the rainfall and all of the 
foresters present who have looked into the subject, I 
am sure, believe now that whereas it is possible that 
forests may have some effect upon the amount of pre- 
cipitation, there is as yet no definite information avail- 
able from any source, either of experiment or investi- 
gation, which goes to prove it. And that feature of the 
subject of the effect of forests on water supply is one 
which I think the Weather Bureau, or possibly the 



92 Proceedings oi? the 

Bureau of Forestry, should have an opportunity to 
investigate in a way in which it has never as yet been 
investigated, so that we may learn positively if there 
is any such effect ; and it is not a form of investigation 
that is difficult to carry out. It has been attempted 
in haphazard ways over limited areas in Europe, but 
never by the wholesale method of detailed regional 
study. 

There is another feature of the subject that occurs 
to me, and that is the claim not infrequently made that 
forests increase the discharge from streams, and that 
claim is also not infrequently put forward by over- 
zealous friends of forestry. And that, too, may be 
correct, though from any investigation or any research 
yet made into the subject I fail to find that there is any 
clear evidence that forests do increase the amount of 
water available for discharge by streams, and for the 
uses of man. And that is another investigation which 
might readily be undertaken in this country by the 
proper Government officials or others and thrashed out 
to a definite conclusion, and which might react very 
favorably upon the subject of forest preservation. I 
can conceive now that the Reclamation Service or the 
Hydrographic Branch of the Geological Survey, over 
which Mr. Newell presides, might undertake such ex- 
periments as those of Professor Toumey, of the Bu- 
reau of Forestry, which Mr. Lippincott illustrated here 
in the upper diagrams. I can conceive that Mr. 
Newell's bureau, with the facilities that it has, might 
readily be encouraged to take up the question of the 
discharge of strearris from forested and from non- 
forested areas of like conditions and show what Euro- 
peans, the people of India, and older countries inter- 
ested in forestry, have not yet been able to show, 
whether or not forests have any actual effect in in- 
creasing the water supply. 



FORESTS AS A FACTOR IN SHAPING 

THE PHYSIOGRAPHIC FORM OF 

MOUNTAINS 

BY 
J. W. TOUMEY 

Professor of Forestry, Yale Forest School 

npHE effect of forest cover upon the surface flow of 
water has been for many years an inviting field 
for Speculation and research, both in this country and 
abroad. Since the extended researches of Ebermayer 
of Bavaria, more than a quarter of a century ago, most 
writers in this field have placed special emphasis upon 
the effect of forests in providing a larger and better 
absorbing medium. It has been argued that the chief 
influence of the forest upon the flow of streams, lies in 
the fact that it provides a looser and deeper soil, cov- 
ered with a variable depth of humus and litter, into 
and through which the precipitation freely seeps. 
Therefore, a much larger part of the rainfall is taken 
up by forest soil than by soil in the open, and there 
is less to pass directly into the streams by flowing over 
the surface. As a result, the flow of streams in fo; 
ested regions are more sustained than similar stream 
flowing from naked drainage basins. 

There is at the present time no serious opposition 
to the view as here set forth. In recent years, how- 
ever, special emphasis has been placed upon the follow- 
ing, viz., that the proportion of the rainfall that reaches 
the streams and the manner of its reaching them de- 
pends chiefly upon the physiographic features of the 



94 Proce:edings oi^ the 

region. The contention is made that when other con- 
ditions are similar, it is the physiographic form which 
most largely determines the amount of run-off in 
proportion to the precipitation and the fluctuations in 
stream-flow as well. 

I wish to emphasize the fact that the physiographic 
form of the drainage basin, more particularly those 
features which most largely influence stream-flow, have 
been brought about by forest growth acting through 
long periods of time. 

In checking wind and water erosion at the sources 
of our mountain streams, the forest produces a much 
greater effect upon physiographic detail than generally 
recognized. On the summits of mountains and on 
ridges, where the forest has a density of .8 or greater, 
and where the forest floor has been undisturbed by 
fire and grazing, the wealth of litter, humus, and min- 
eral soil takes up practically all of the precipitation; 
which, seeping through the soil, reappears on the sur- 
face at lower elevations without bringing silt and other 
eroded material with it. Erosion, therefore, in such 
regions is very slow as compared with non-forested 
regions. 

Vertical corrasion in the channels of the intermit- 
tent and permanent streams is also a slower process, 
because there is but little grinding material carried 
by the moving water. 

On the other hand, when summits and ridges have 
been without forest cover for long periods, there is not 
only an almost total absence of litter and humus, but 
a scant covering of mineral soil as well. The absence 
of an absorbing medium causes the larger part of the 
rainfall to flow over the surface from the place of fall- 
ing. This surface flow causes rapid erosion. 

The forest, in preventing the transportation of soil 



American Fore:st Congress 95 

at the sources of mountain streams, ultimately brings 
about a very different physiographic configuration from 
that of non-forested areas under otherv/ise similar 
conditions. In well timbered mountain summits and 
ridges are usually broad and rounded. On the other 
hand, non-timbered summits and ridges are inclined to 
be sharp and jagged, with very precipitous slopes. The 
former have a convex physiographic form, while the 
latter have a concave. This condition can be observed 
in all the mountain ranges of the West. Even in the 
same range, these features above or below timber line 
have sharp ridges and concave lines, while in the dense 
timber the ridges are rounded and the form is convex. 

I am well aware that convexity in physiographic 
form is indicative of youth, while concave physio- 
graphic form indicates age. Although in a broad way 
this is true, the concave or old type is reached at a com- 
paratively early age on elevations that do not bear a 
forest cover, while it is almost indefinitely postponed 
on elevations that sustain an uninterrupted forest 
growth. 

The convex configuration of forested summits and 
ridges is the ideal type for the retention of a maximum 
amount of the precipitation on the higher portions of 
the drainage basin to ultimately seep through the soil 
and give the streams a sustained flow. 

The concave configuration, which is so character- 
istic of non-timbered mountains, permits the precipi- 
tation for the most part to escape over the surface, not 
only on account of the absence of an absorbing me- 
dium, but because of the more precipitous slopes. 

The former condition causes a large percentage of 
the rainfall to be retained at high elevation from 
whence, through seepage, it gives perennial flow to 
mountain streams. The latter condition results in the 



96 Proce:e:dings of the 

greater part of the precipitation rushing over the sur- 
face to lower levels. Only a small percentage of the 
rainfall is retained at the higher elevations, hence there 
is but little seepage to feed the streams and they become 
dry soon after the flood waters subside. 

I cannot here enter into the various observations and 
researches made under my direction during the past 
four years, which bear upon the relation of forest cover 
to stream flow. These investigations and the conclu- 
sions which they appear to warrant are soon to be pub- 
lished in bulletin form by the Bureau of Forestry, U. 
S. Department of Agriculture. 

The single point that I here desire to emphasize is 
this: forest cover in mountain streams, through its 
influence upon erosion, has a very appreciable effect 
upon physiographic form, and this effect of the forest 
working through long periods of time, is of the utmost 
importance in its influences upon the flow of mountain 
streams. 



PART III 



THE LUMBER INDUSTRY AND THE 
FORESTS 



THE LUMBERMAN'S INTEREST IN 
FORESTRY 

BY 

N. W. McLEOD 

President, National Lumber Manufacturers' Association 

C UCH an assemblage as the one before me would 
have been quite impossible ten years ago. The 
lumberman and the forester were then far apart. So 
long as forestry was regarded as merely scientific, but 
little progress was made; but as it came largely 
through the influence of our Bureau of Forestry, to 
be more clearly understood as a musiness matter, the 
prospect has brightened rapidly. The very fact that 
this American Forest Congress has assigned one ses- 
sion of its meeting to the discussion of the lumber 
industry and the forests is excellent evidence that the 
development of forestry is in the right direction. And 
in developing an American system of forestry founded 
upon sound business principles and adapted to local 
conditions, the Bureau of Forestry is doing a very 
important work. 

For a number of years at the annual meetings of the 
various lumber manufacturers' associations, the 
Bureau has been represented by some well equipped 
member of its staff, who delivered an address of 
interest and value to practical lumbermen. The 
Bureau has in a large measure succeeded in convincing 
the lumbermen that forestry is not antagonistic to the 
lumbermen's interest, but in line with it. At present 
while forestry is accepted tentatively, the individual 
is backward about inaugurating an innovation in his 

tOFC. 



loo Prockkdings o^ thk 

own operations, as any plan that requires years to 
prove profitable; the commercial mind is slow to em- 
brace. 

The facts that must deeply impress the individual 
are those which influence matters of personal interest. 
The lumberman centers his attention on that part of 
the forest which he can profitably convert into money. 
The young, immature trees are obstacles to him, which 
increase the cost of transporting timber to the mill. 

T! c forester, on the other hand, considers young 
trees as the basis of future returns. 

In order that the best results may be obtained, the 
forester must understand the economic problems that 
confront the lumberman. The manufacturer of lum- 
ber faces the necessity of providing raw^ material 
(standing timber) for from five to twenty years, de- 
pending on the size of his plant, in order to justify his 
investment. He usually has maturing payments on 
his timber land, that have to be met from the returns 
of operation. This necessity has generally precluded 
in the earlier years of a lumberman's operation serious 
consideration of anything but the production of the 
lumber at the lowest possible cost. The practice of 
forestry would increase the cost of production per 
unit on account of the less amount of timber imme- 
diately available from a given area. The percentage 
of increase in cost of production would be very slight 
where there is a heavy stand of timber, but in a light 
stand the percentage of increased cost would be quite 
large. The individual operator has always had to 
consider — first, the necessity of employing a larger 
investment; second, competition of manufacturers, 
who are operating regardless of the principles of 
forestry. This competition during periods of general 
commercial depression might force the manufacturer 



American Forest Congress ioi 

who is practicing forestry to run his plant at a loss, 
or suspend operations until the conditions of supply 
and demand were favorable. 

About two years ago a number of gentlemen who 
were large holders of timber lands made an effort to 
consolidate practically all of the larger yellow pine 
holdings of the South into a single timber company, 
contemplating the cutting and sale of timber to lumber 
manufacturers under the application of forestry. That 
is, that the amount of timber in one year should not 
exceed the amount produced, except where the land 
would produce greater returns as agriculture, when 
it would naturally be cut clear. If this plan could 
have been put into operation, the increased cost of 
transporting the mature timber over larger areas made 
necessary by the application of forestry, would have 
been more than equalized by the advance in the value 
of stumpage, on account of the smaller amount imme- 
diately available. 

It was found, however, that the general public, as 
well as many timber owners, did not understand 
forestry sufficiently well to look favorably upon an 
investment of either capital or timber on the scale 
proposed. 

A meeting such as this gives promise that the for- 
ester will increase his knowledge of economic problems 
before the manufacturer, and that investors and hold- 
ers of timber learn that the forester does not desire 
to place obstacles in the way of profitably converting 
the forests into lumber, but by forestry to protect them 
from fire, disease, and useless waste, thus making 
forest investments safe and permanent. 

That forestry is practicable upon large timber hold- 
ings, either in private or Government ownership, is 
unquestioned by all who have given the matter careful 



102 Proceedings o^ the 

thought. Lumbermen who have studied the timber 
situation reahze that in the future, as in the past, the 
largest returns will not be obtained through their 
manufacturing plants only. The great fortunes that 
have been made in the lumber business have been ac- 
quired by the owners of large bodies of timber lands, 
and this condition will continue. For the purpose 
of illustration, let us consider the supply of timber 
as represented by one circle, and the annual consump- 
tion by another circle. The circle representing con- 
sumption is annually increasing, as the result not 
only of increase in population but of a material 
increase in per capita consumption of wood. 
On the other hand the circle representing supply is 
annually decreasing, and unless the forests are reserved 
for use, instead of being sacrificed for the sake of the 
cost of immediate production of lumber, the circle of 
supply, as far as it can be considered a commercial 
factor, must disappear. If this be true, all Govern- 
ment timber lands should be withdrawn from sale or 
entry and placed under conservative forest manage- 
ment, all mature timber being for sale, provided proper 
protection is given the young timber. In this way, at 
least, a partial supply of timber for future generations 
can be perpetuated. 



THE CHANGED ATTITUDE OF LUMBER- 
MEN TOWARD FORESTRY 

BY 

J. E. DEFEBAUGH 

Editor American Lumberman 

D ECALLING the history of the lumber industry of 
America and of forestry in this country, we are 
filled with mingled emotions of pleasure and surprise as 
we attend the sessions of this Congress and behold the 
character and diversity of this assembly. It reminds 
me of the story told by Dr. Henry Van Dyke of the 
Httle girl who asked her father : 

"Papa, where were you born ?" 
''In Boston, my dear," he answered. 
"And where was mamma born?" 
"In San Francisco, my dear." 
"And where was I born?" 
"In Philadelphia, my dear." 

"Well," said the little one, "isn't it funny how we 
three people ever got together !" 

There are present, through the most altruistic mo- 
tives, not only men to whom forestry is a science and 
an occupation, but men whose business is the cutting 
of the forest, and men who are neither lumbermen nor 
professional foresters, but who occupy high places in 
our national life and are interested in the forestry 
movement because it is for the national good. 

There is to participate in the proceedings of this 
convention the most distinguished forester in the nation 



104 Proce:e:dings of the: 

and consequently the most distinguished forester in the 
world — the President of the United States. 

To him who in the love of nature holds 
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks 
A various language — 

and Theodore Roosevelt has held communion with 
nature possibly more extensively and certainly more 
intensively than any of the rest of us here. He has 
learned to know nature, and consequently the forests, 
from their romantic and practical sides, and he has 
demonstrated his practical sympathy with the forestry 
movement as has no other in this country. 

Another high forester, who has been an efficient 
stimulus to forestry and along effective lines, is the 
President of the American Forestry Association, the 
Secretary of Agriculture, James Wilson. Of him 
Senator Mark Hanna, the sincerely lamented states- 
man from the Buckeye State, said to a great audience 
of lumbermen assembled in this city two years ago : 

" 'Uncle Jimmy' knows his business and he has 
taught the people of this country on the farm, in the 
forests and in the mines — all of the great productive 
interests of the United States — more in the five or six 
years he has been at the head of that department than 
all the rest of the scores of the departments put 
together. He is the right man in the right place. 
And it makes no difference what changes may come 
in the political atmosphere here, we will keep him here 
if we have to run him on a separate ticket." 

Another forester among us, of national reputation, 
and a fame peculiarly his own because his work has 
been and is largely altruistic, has given a large per- 
centage of the present impetus to forest work — Gifford 



American Forest Congress 105 

Pinchot, the chief forester of the Government. A 
man of culture, he has decided to make his Hfe work 
one for which not only the present but future genera- 
tions will "rise up to call him blessed." 

All within sound of my voice, therefore, are for- 
esters; and so I feel some confidence in a kindly 
reception of this effort. The subject has been a cause 
for comment, not only in the lumber trade but among 
all interested in forestry: "The Changed Attitude of 
Lumbermen Toward Forestry." 

I think, however, it is hardly adequate to assume 
that only the lumberman's position has changed; the 
change has been as great, or greater, in the conditions 
surrounding us, and in the attitude and policies of 
specialists in forestry. 

No reasonable man would be disposed to denounce 
the early settlers of the timbered portions of North 
America for cutting away the forests. Cleared land 
was necessary for the growing of food products which 
were essential to the sustenance of life. A man with 
a family, by a courageous enterprise or by the force of 
circumstances projected into the wilderness, would not 
hesitate to cut down and clear off the tree growth as 
rapidly as his strength permitted. Self-preservation 
is the first law of nature, and the pioneers in our forest 
areas had to clear the land or starve. Moreover, in 
the early period of settlement he was considered the 
greatest benefactor to the state and to the community 
in which he lived who slashed down the most forest 
and cleared the land most rapidly and thoroughly. 

At first there was no thought of the future value of 
timber; at the moment it was a cumberer of the 
ground, like ledges of rock and the loose stones of the 
glacial drift. It was thought to be a fortunate possi- 
bility that a portion of the cumbersome forest growth. 



io6 Procke:dings of the; 

that must be cleared from the land anyway to make 
room for towns, villages, highways, and farms, could 
be utilized. In the process of clearing farms, if any of 
the timber could be sold and shipped to the European 
and seaboard markets or used for local improvements 
it was a clear gain, profit accruing from a gratuitous 
resource, like game from the woods or fish from the 
waters. There was no thought that the trees would 
in time acquire a distinct and appreciable value simply 
because they had become scarce. 

Another reason why the early lumberman from his 
own viewpoint saw no particular value in standing 
timber was that he found it hard work to make a profit 
when he had an unlimited privilege to cut all the 
timber in sight. In the beginning of operations in the 
three northwestern white pine states — from 1830 to 
about 1845 — ^11 the mill operators had to do to secure 
logs for sawing was to obtain from the Indians the 
privilege to cut timber, which permits were usually 
sanctioned by the Government. A few goods given 
to the Indians were sufficient to secure all the logs 
necessary to supply any of the mills of that day. Tim- 
ber that would run 60 per cent uppers could be secured 
in exchange for whiskey that would run 90 per cent 
adulteration. 

The early operators penetrated the deep woods far 
from settlement, going along the lake shore and up the 
rivers 100 or 200 miles from any considerable base of 
supplies, and after great hardship and excessive labor, 
and often loss by flood and fire, managed to saw a 
little lumber in the primitive saw mills of that day and 
raft it out to the market. It goes without saying that 
these early operators had no thought for the preserva- 
tion of the forests. They took the nearest and best 
trees for their purpose, as they needs must if they were 
to make any profit in their enterprise. 



Ame^rican Forest Congress 107 

After the pine lands had been surveyed and settle- 
ment had developed a general demand for lumber, pine 
holdings began to have a specific value — but at first it 
v\^as a acreage price at Government figures. It was 
cheap property and so esteemed. The main thing with 
the lumberman was the expense involved in building 
mills, in cleaning out streams for the floating logs, 
putting in camps, and all else that was involved in 
logging, milling, and marketing. 

As to pine stumpage, the mill operators from 1850 
to 1880 thought there was no limit to it. Its possible 
exhaustion was considered so far in the future as to 
be a negligible quantity in the equation. The location 
of a mill at an advantageous site for floating logs 
down to it and for shipping lumber when produced 
was the prime consideration. The investment was in 
these things; the value of the raw material on the 
stump was the minor factor in the problem. 

And yet with stumpage worth but $1.25 an acre 
lumbermen found it diflicult to make profit in their 
business from 1850 to 1857, and, in the latter disastrous 
year and the several years following, hundreds of them 
in Michigan, Wisconsin, and along the Mississippi 
River went to the financial wall. After the civil war 
there was a revival, with some few successes and some 
slight increase in timber values. In 1873 came another 
financial revolution and more depression in the lumber 
business, accompanied by many bankruptcies. 

Not until 1879-80 did the northern pine business 
reach a plane of commercial activity where stumpage 
values began to be considered. At that time the pine 
owners who had hung on to their stumpage despite 
hard times, low prices, and meager profits in lumber 
production began to realize that they possessed wealth 
in their pine trees. Then standing pine began to be 



io8 Proceedings oi^ the 

closely estimated and the value of an acre of land was 
determined by the number of thousands of feet of logs 
that could be cut from it. But, as in nearly all cases 
where their is an advance of stumpage values, there 
was not a commensurate rise in the value of sawed 
product. Operators with large holdings of standing 
timber were made rich by the advancement in the 
value of their stumpage, while they found it necessary 
to pursue the strictest business methods and use the 
most economical appliances in order to produce lumber 
at a profit on the basis of stumpage values. Conse- 
quently there followed the utmost utilization of the 
pine on a given area of land. As the years passed 
standing pine continued to advance in price in greater 
ratio than sawed product, and the effort to convert 
every possible tree into salable lumber increased. A 
great change was induced, a change from the old 
method of cutting all the larger trees and those nearest 
the water, as was done in the '40s and '50s, to the 
latter-day practice of scraping the land of every tree 
that would produce mechantable lumber, down to those 
that would turn out only a 4x4, with possibly bark on 
one or more corners of the piece. Sometimes have 
been cut in this way trees whose product would not 
pay the saw bill. Yet there was produced from them 
a product useful to the community at large which from 
the lumberman's point of view would have been wasted 
had they been left in the woods, and his natural desire 
for thrift and economy led him beyond the point where 
his operations would result in profit to himself. 

The development of railroad logging has also had 
its notable influence in this direction. The expense of 
building logging railroads into the timber is so great 
that only comparatively solid bodies of timber will 
carry it. When the merchantable timber is taken out 



American Forest Congress 109 

the road is also taken up and moved elsewhere ; and it 
is desirable that before this is done the logging shall be 
thoroughly completed. Under such conditions it often 
is very unlikely that even if the smaller trees be left 
upon the tract there will ever again be a sufficient stand 
of timber to justify the rebuilding of the logging road. 

The point aimed at in this cursory review of the 
evolution of the pine lumber industry is to show that 
the lumbermen all along pursued a strenuous course in 
their endeavor to make a profit in their business. In 
their enterprise they had to be pioneers in a vast wil- 
derness; they had to cover wide extents of territory 
in carrying out their plans; they were forced to clear 
out streams, build dams, put in booms, erect mills, and 
latterly construct railroads, build and purchase vessels, 
equip lines of barges, and establish docks — all of 
which required capital and necessitated great economy, 
business acumen, and thoroughness in order to secure 
profit in operation. It was a business that required 
much money and credit and considerable time before 
any profitable results could accrue. Is it any wonder, 
then, that the lumbermen looked upon their stumpage, 
pr any stumpage, as merely raw material from which, 
if conditions were favorable, they could extract a 
money profit? 

Fifty years ago in this country a general application 
of forestry methods would have been absurd. There 
were some cases where forests in particular places 
should have been preserved, but up to that time and 
even later the forest as a whole was an encumbrance. 
In the eastern part of the United States, which had the 
people, not only the lumberman but the settler also was 
engaged in removing the forest, with the difference, 
however, that the settler was making little or no use 
of it, but merely destroying it to get it out of his way. 



110 Proceedings of the 

Modern civilization cannot exist in the shade nor 
Hve on mast. The forests had to be cleared away in 
order to give place for growing corn and wheat. So 
there was the peculiar combination of dependence upon 
the forests for fuel and building supplies and at the 
same time the obligation to remove them to make room 
for other crops. The lumberman, therefore, was not 
a devastator, but performed a useful function in the 
community at a profit to himself by removing that 
which had, as it stood, little or no value. The public 
cannot with justice condemn the lumberman for chop- 
ping down the trees when it recalls the conspicuous 
example set by the Father of his Country. 

Furthermore, until recent years the Government, 
which owned the forests in the unused areas of the 
United States, placed no special value on them. It 
invited acquisition by any one, including the lumber- 
man ; consequently the lumbermen came into possession 
of much of the timbered area and practically all the 
pine, hemlock, and similar woods which grow in solid 
forests. There was thus set up a property interest 
which had to be treated like any other private interest. 
Many had their fortunes invested in timber and the 
only way in which they could realize on the investment 
was by manufacture. 

It is true that with recent years standing timber has 
come into greater prominence as an opportunity for 
investment, and there are now large holdings in the 
hands of capitalists who have never owned nor 
operated a saw mill and perhaps never expect to do 
so. Such owners hold their timber for an enhancement 
of values as would an investor in real estate, but they 
expect to hold only so long as it seems more profitable 
to hold than to sell. They are not holding their timber 
for posterity, but only for the best marketing oppor- 



Ame:rican Forest Congress hi 

tunity. The same question of present versus future 
markets confronts the timber owner who is also a 
manufacturer, modified somewhat by the incHnation to 
keep the mill in operation. It determines somewhat 
the capacity of the mill to be built upon a given site 
with a known amount of tributary timber, and after 
it is built determines whether the output shall be 
restricted or pushed to the limit according to the cur- 
rent market demands. That is the point of view of 
any other owner of pine timber or of any other sort 
of timber that has tangible value. The tree represents 
a definite asset to be converted at the earliest favorable 
opportunity, and without reference to any possible 
interest that posterity might have in its being per- 
mitted to remain on the stump. 

The increase in value of all timber holdings within 
recent years makes advocacy of forest preservation, 
as far as merchantable timber is concerned, properly 
a plea for so managing the forest as to get the greatest 
amount of commercial product from it at the present 
time without impairing any more than necessary its 
productive capacity for the future. The holder of a 
timber estate is actuated by exactly the same consid- 
erations as the holder of other property — he wishes it 
to produce more money than he has put in. If he can 
be convinced that the timber is such that its growth 
will give him greater earnings on his investment than 
its cutting at the present time he may be induced to 
hold it ; but he is not likely to let his forest stand solely 
for the benefit of posterity, or unless it is practically 
shown that this procedure will lead to enhancement in 
the value of his estate. In so far, however, as the 
timber is already matured the time of its harvest is 
already at hand. The owner, of course, desires to 
harvest it in the most economical manner ; and if 



112 Proceedings of the 

timber owners and lumbermen can be instructed in this 
particular and induced to practice timber management 
in accordance with the plan advocated by trained for- 
esters much will be accomplished in the direction of 
prolonging existing timber supplies. But it should 
be admitted by everybody that the money value of 
standing timber will inevitably determine the disposi- 
tion of it, except where it has been reserved by the 
Government. 

If there has been any tardiness in recognizing the 
necessity for forest regulation and reforestation it 
should be understood that the forestry idea has been 
slow in gaining ground even with a disinterested gen- 
eral public, a fact chargeable neither to the lumbermen 
nor to the forestry advocates. 

We have heard much of the "wasteful methods" of 
the lumbermen, but in the early days of lumbering 
there was no waste that was not necessary, or, rather, 
no waste that was not more economical than to save. 
No property owner can afford to spend dollars when 
he will receive only cents in return. Under the condi- 
tions, the waste in tree tops, tall stumps, thick slabs, 
edgings, and trimmings and much sawdust was, from 
a financial standpoint, no waste at all. The lumbermen 
did with their property only what would yield the best 
returns. 

To an industry established on such a basis there 
came the advocate of forest preservation. Originally 
— during the early agitation of the subject and up to 
within fifteen or twenty years — forestry advocates 
were manly of two classes, either sentimentalists or 
technicists ; the latter being trained in the forest meth- 
ods of the old European countries where conditions 
were entirely different from those that obtained in 
the United States. The former scolded or tearfully 
implored, while the latter proposed the impossible. 



American Fore:st Congre:ss 113 

Listening to the abuse that was showered upon 
them ; to the seemingly impracticable theories ; to the 
petitions which, if granted, would have wiped out their 
properties, is it any wonder that lumbermen were at 
first indifferent or even were aroused to hostility? 
Some of them were incensed, others threatening, and 
others were amused by unjust criticism. 

Beware the wicked lumberman, 
That wasteful, hasteful artisan. 
But while the logger you discuss 
A glance take at the rest of us — 
The camper with his cheery blaze 
That blows around in many ways; 
The hunting man with pillar bright 
Of smoke by day and fire by night; 
The farmer with his log heap high, 
His stump-fire when the weather's dry, 
His fancy, solid walnut fence — 
He worries not about expense. 
Oh, when the logger you condemn 
Consider well the rest of them. 
Consider the farmer of the field 
Who loves the flaming torch to wield ;. 
The campers toil not, neither spin. 
Yet pretty blazes they begin — 
Nor Solomon, in all his ease. 
Burned money up like one of these! 

However, a change in conditions was going on. Up 
to the point where the natural growth of the forest 
would more than take care of the needs of a community 
the surplus was valueless and would better be disposed 
of in some manner than preserved at any material cost. 
But when we reached the stage where the forests were 



114 Proceedings o^ the 

reduced to the point where the natural annual increase 
would not more than take care of the present and 
prospective needs of the country, then values advanced 
and the lumbermen have come to see some practicality 
in the proposition that methods of forest preservation 
should be introduced. 

Like all methods that effect great changes in society 
or economics, the forestry idea in the United States 
has been an evolution. It must be confessed that 
foresters of the present day discard some theories 
that were considered important by American forestry 
experts of thirty years ago. 

There's that dear old rainfall theory once held in such 

esteem 
By which a dampness was produced by such a simple 

scheme. 
As Aaron smote the rock of old and found a water 

power 
So might we plant a tamarack and start a summer 

shower. 
Behold the forester of old, the optimistic fellah — 
A planting trowel in one hand, in the other an umbrella. 

Our duty is not particularly to refrain from chop- 
ping down trees ripe for the ax ,but to be active in 
replacing them. Coincident with this duty is that of 
cutting only mature timber, where that is possible, 
and of guarding timber tracts from fires and other 
destructive agencies that often are due to carelessness. 

There is nothing truer than the old saying that you 
cannot eat your cake and have it, yet it never restrained 
very many people from eating the cake, for the cake 
must be eaten to be enjoyed. The thing to do is not 



American Forest Congress 115 

to weep over the cake after it has disappeared, but to 
get out the recipe book and make another. 

No one will question the soundness of the lumber- 
man's belief that his method gets the greatest use out 
of the tree. Though the old theory is now seriously 
questioned if the standing tree encourages the summer 
shower, the sawed shingle is necessary to protect the 
head of the man from the thunder storm. Nothing in 
the world can suffer a better fate than utilization. 
When the tomato was the ruddy "love apple" of our 
youth it was a beautiful object, but who will deny the 
more potent attraction of the tomato stew? We are 
compelled to admit that the mature tree must come 
down. Once down, that particular tree is eliminated. 
I am reminded of the question asked of the Swiss 
guide by the tourist. He was gazing over the edge of 
the precipice and remarked to the guide: "I suppose 
people often fall from here?" "No," replied the guide, 
"only once." A tree is felled but once and the next 
and only thing is to replace it where that is practicable. 

That there has been a change of heart within recent 
years on the part of American lumbermen toward the 
forestry idea there can be no doubt. If you should 
ask me to what I ascribe this sentiment I would say 
that the most important step forward was made by the 
disciples of forestry when they ceased to preach the 
doctrine of indirect and deferred benefits and began to 
demonstrate that direct benefits could be made to result 
from forestry as a science and as a practice. Proper 
forestry regulations and successful reforestation can 
never be brought about except by a demonstration of 
direct results. All that has been said about the influ- 
ence of forests on climatic conditions, on watersheds, 
bird life, etc., may be, much of it is, absolutely true, 
but the great and vital question that appeals to the 



ii6 Procee:dings of th^ 

American lumberman is: "How can I cut my timber 
now and at the same time grow a new timber crop for 
future supply?" 

Inasmuch as my intereest in the forestry movement 
began contemporaneously with my identity with the 
lumber press, many reminiscences occur to me in con- 
nection with the subject which time does not permit 
me to indulge in ; but I do not know that I could better 
illustrate the progress which has been made during the 
last decade than by giving a few brief excerpts from 
an address which I made upon this subject during the 
proceedings of a forestry congress at Chicago in the 
summer of 1893, arranged by Hon. W. I. Buchanan, 
chief of the Forestry Department of the World's 
Columbian Exposition. Regarding the attitude of the 
lumberman at the time, I said : 

"He is as heartily in accord with all movements 
looking toward the welfare of the coming generation 
as any one can be who * ^= * has to make his 
living in this. * * * Talk to him as a citizen or 
a philanthropist and you at once gain cordial attention 
and arouse his interest in a way, which as far as the 
exigencies of his business will permit, will be reflected 
by his actions, but as a lumberman he is face to face 
with the hard actualities of life. He sees the practical 
side perhaps all too plainly, but that practical side 
cannot be ignored. The present is an overpowering 
fact, while the future has but a shadowy influence." 

In that address I referred to the then almost irre- 
sistible incentives to the employment of lumbering 
methods wasteful from the standpoint of the forester 
but inevitable in the stress of competition, and admitted 
our absolute dependence for forestry results upon 
governmental control. Upon this I said in part: 

"The lumberman will have no objections to govern- 



Ame:rican Forest Congress 117 

mental regulations which shall require him to clear of 
the debris remaining- therefrom the land on which he 
conducts his logging operations ; but he would insist 
that such regulations shall be * "^ * applied 
impartially to all sections, as otherwise an artificial 
inequality would be brought about. State regulations 
will hardly answer, for stringent enforcement of rules 
in Wisconsin may put the operator in that state out of 
competition with his competitor in Minnesota or Mich- 
igan. * * * 

"This the Government can do : It can refuse to sell 
or give up control of timber standing on Government 
land. It can perhaps, even now, gain some small 
revenue from allowing timber to be cut under proper 
restrictions, for which a royalty shall be paid. * * * 
It is possible that the Government might purchase 
standing timber so located that its preservation might 
have some marked effect on the watersheds and natural 
reservoirs of the country, but it is doubtful if even this 
rich nation could do much in this direction." 

What the Federal Government has accomplished 
since that time in the establishment of forest reserves 
and in arranging for the lumbering of the mature 
timber from certain of them under forestry regulations 
is a matter of history. It is to be regretted that thus 
far no attempt has seemed feasible to compel the clean- 
ing up of forest debris in lumbering operations upon 
private holdings. Such a law universally enforced 
would effect a decreased loss through forest fires which 
would more than pay the increased cost of operation. 

Regarding the application of forestry methods to 
lumbering I said at that time: 

"What is wanted is a commercial conservation of 
the forests, but this involves conditions so different 
from those now prevailing that it is difficult to see 

E 



ii8 Proceedings o^ the 

how any immediate headway can be made. But agita- 
tion for anything theoretically desirable is a good 
thing, for the dream of one generation is the reality 
of the next. Conditions are shifting fast in this new 
country of ours and the next fifty years are likely to 
show great changes in fundamental things. 

"The time is comparatively near at hand when the 
virgin wealth will all be exhausted or closed to the 
pioneer, and when the conservator must take the place 
of the developer and promoter. It is therefore not too 
soon to begin the study of this important subject of 
forestry, as perhaps before we are aware of it the 
conditions may have so changed that what now has its 
existence only in theory may have been materialized 
into concrete form." 

During the eleven years that have passed since that 
time the cause of forestry has made great headway 
under the intelligent direction of the Bureau of For- 
estry, although that bureau has been until very recently 
handicapped by a division of its natural duties between 
three branches of government lacking intelligent cen- 
tralized control. It has, however, brought the practical 
and the theoretical into more harmonious relations 
with each other and has promoted a broader and deeper 
understanding of all the elements which enter into the 
problem and has prepared all of those who are inter- 
ested in the subject for effective co-operation. What 
has been accomplished is much ; it is hardly more than 
preliminary and preparatory for the actual work of the 
next decade. 

I want to call your attention to the fact that the 
inhabitants of great timber states have not been 
unmindful of this question. They have viewed with 
concern the rapid disappearance of their woods, and 
have to a large degree come to a realization of the 



American Forest Congress 119 

serious meaning of the annihilation of their forests. 
Neither are the men who are engaged in the himber 
industry unmindful of the seriousness of the situation. 
Within a few years there has been a marked change 
among lumber operators in this respect. This has 
come about largely because of the increased wealth 
and intelligence of the men who now control a large 
percentage of the merchantable timber of the country. 
Lumbermen in the old days struggled for a mere 
existence ; in these modern times many of them have 
emerged from the status of the pioneer to that of the 
well-to-do business man ; many are legislators, nearly 
all are men of affairs in other lines than lumber, and 
in point of intelligence and broadness of view they 
rank with any other class of people in the country. It 
is impossible that such men should not realize the 
importance and benefit expressed in the term "for- 
estry." They are in favor of forest reserves, properly 
administered, in certain portions of the country where 
such reserves will do the most good. They indorse 
the wisest and most thorough economy in the manage- 
ment of their own forest holdings. They would be 
glad of any plan for economical cutting and marketing 
that would be an improvement on present methods. 
Indeed the tentative efforts that have been made in 
these directions by owners of yellow pine stumpage in 
the south prove this. These owners have seen how 
northern pine has been slaughtered to near exhaustion 
and wish to avoid such a precipitate, headlong rush 
toward the end. 

The fact that there was in the past season almost 
unanimous cooperation among yellow pine manufac- 
turers, and is now among Pacific coast producers, to 
curtail the mill output to coincide with the actual 
demand, shows that there has been an awakening to 
the evil of sacrificing timber by forcing the sawed 



I20 Procee:dings o^ the: 

product on the market to the extent of breaking down 
values and causing unprofitable prices. It is true a 
commercial motive enters here to prevent the slaugh- 
tering of the forests, but the result is the same. In 
one sense there are no purely unselfish motives 
touching economical questions. Even the disciples of 
forestry wish to preserve, propagate, and perpetuate 
the forests because the results would be of economic 
benefit to mankind. The underlying motive is the 
benefit that largely can be expressed in dollars and 
cents. So it is an encouraging sign to see the lumber- 
men awakening to the fact that it is to their individual 
interests and to the interests of their heirs to make the 
most of their timber by the prolongation of cutting and 
by the preservation and nurture of the young growth. 
In this awakening they are in direct accord with the 
most advanced forester. Moreover, it can be said that 
the present spirit of the lumbermen in respect to for- 
estry is but a foretaste of what it will be as the years 
pass. Forestry is a cause that shall grow in earnestness 
and power until it shall have become the undisputed 
dictum as applied to the management of the woodlands. 
In saying this I believe that I voice the faith that is 
growing in the minds of intelligent lumbermen. 

Let it not be supposed that the lumberman is any 
less public-spirited, any less a sentimentalist, than he 
who is engaged in any other line of business. He sees 
as much beauty in a noble oak or elm as does any one. 
He would preserve nature's landmarks if he did not 
have to pay all the cost himself. He sees the value of 
a forest cover on the mountain slopes and at the head 
of the waters of the streams. He sees all these things 
but he does not wish to pay, himself, the entire cost or 
more than his fair share of the cost. His attitude 
toward forestry has changed with the conditions, and, 
while there may be exceptions, the average operating 



Ame:rican Fore:st Congress 121 

lumber manufacturer is disposed to show the Govern- 
ment that he will be satisfied (if the Government will 
hold and care for the forests) with buying from the 
Government the surplus timber. 

I could paint a glowing picture of the great interest 
that has been aroused in forestry, augmented by the 
individual work and advice of the Bureau of Forestry 
and its able and efficient head, Gififord Pinchot; but I 
surmise that you want a true picture of actual opera- 
tions and to know to what extent they conform to 
accepted forestry practice. I wish I were able to 
report that 90 per cent of the lumbermen of the country 
cut their timber in accordance with rules supplied by 
Mr. Pinchot and his assistants. It would be gratifying 
to me to say that 75 per cent did this ; that 50 per cent 
did! that 25 per cent did. Throughout the country 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific from the Lakes to the 
Gulf, I find but a few isolated cases, and most of these 
of comparatively recent origin. Why ? Because here- 
tofore it has not been practicable. While this is true 
to-day a far different story can and doubtless will be 
told five or ten years hence. It is not so important 
that two or three lumbermen have been induced to 
make a start as that all are being educated and pre- 
pared for a general movement in this direction in the 
fullness of time. During the last few years the Bureau 
of Forestry has received requests from several lumber 
concerns for plans for cutting their timber so as to 
insure a future supply. These plans, except as above 
stated, have not yet been put into operation, because 
conditions have not been such as to warrant it. But 
the opening has been made. Lumbermen realize that 
not only is it possible to carry on their work in this 
manner but circumstances are so adjusting themselves 
that it is imperative that it shall so be done. 

The lumbermen of the country have keen interest 



122 Proce:^dings o^ thk 

in the work which has already been done by the Bureau 
of Forestry, and in other practical features of its work 
which have been hardly more than initiated. They 
appreciate the bureau's investigation of the results of 
grazing in forest reserves, the prevention and extin- 
guishment of forest fires, etc. They are, and will be, 
quickly responsive to any practical appeals along 
forestry lines. They particularly appreciate practical 
work, as that, for instance, shown by the bureau at the 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition in determining the rel- 
ative values and costs of different methods of the 
preservation of timber and ties ; its exhaustive and 
reliable tests of the strengths of various commercial 
woods, and especially its eminently practical studies of 
timber diseases, and the causes of and remedies for 
blue stain, one of the most prolific sources of trouble to 
lumbermen during the past thirty years. The bulletin 
which has been issued upon this subject, entitled "The 
Blue Diseases of Western Yellow Pine," is therefore 
of eminently practical interest; and, indeed, all the 
bulletins of the Bureau of Forestry have reached a 
higher level of practical usefulness than ever before in 
its history. Full many a publication bearing the stamp 
of the Government Printing Office is sent out to gush 
unread and waste its wisdom on the musty air of attic 
or cellar, but the additional imprint of the Bureau of 
Forestry is a most infallible prophecy of a welcome 
from an interested reader. 

Perhaps in this connection better than elsewhere can 
be illustrated a phase of the change in attitude of lum- 
bermen and those in allied trades toward forestry 
methods. Twenty years, even a decade ago, lumber- 
men had a nebulous idea of governmental forestry 
work. Most of them regarded it with careless toler- 
ance as the labor of irnpractical experimentalists. The 
reverse was the condition at the recent world's fair. 



American Forest Congress 123 

The exhibits in the great Forestry building, and its 
outlying forest planting area, attracted widespread 
attention and proved instructive to the lay observer; 
but the lumbermen and their allies, the great lumber 
consumers — railroad lumber consumers, manufactur- 
ing consumers, and the builders of great structures — 
while interested in these things, already more or less 
familiar to them, found their inspiration and instruction 
largely in the experimental station in the Mining Gulch 
conducted by the Bureau of Forestry. Here were 
congregated every day of the exposition the high 
officials of the railroad companies, the great lumber 
consumers, such as the proprietors of agricultural 
implement works, hardwood consumers seeking sub- 
stitutes for woods constantly enhancing in price, 
manufacturers and users of the soft woods searching 
for enlightenment on methods of preservation and 
other economic questions. No more complete tribute 
could have been paid to the work of the bureau and 
possibly no better illustration can be cited of the change 
in attitude toward practical forestry : 

I would not say to man : ''Forbear 

To use the things God putteth here." 

I would not say to man : "Restrain 

Thy wish for wealth, thy greed for gain." 

But rather would I say to man : 

"Use its fruition of a plan ; 

Take then these gifts God giveth thee — 

The golden fruit, the mighty tree. 

All pleasant things the fields produce — 

And render them to proper use; 

And, in return, one thing I ask, 

One simple, easy, proper task: 

That which from nature you efiface 

With its own seedling life replace." 



IS FORESTRY PRACTICABLE ON LONG- 
LEAF PINE LANDS? 

BY 

JOHN L. KAUL 

President Kaul Lumber Company of Alabama 

"X* HE subject assigned to me is "The Practicability 
of Forestry on Longleaf Pine Lands." My 
acquaintance with the Southern pine belt has extended 
over a period of seventeen years. During that time I 
have constantly observed the deplorable effect upon the 
forest of lumbering without regard to the future. 
My experience with the actual application of forestry 
to longleaf pine lands, however, has been limited to 
the tracts in which I am particularly interested. I 
have thought, therefore, that the Congress would be 
more interested to hear of the plans which have been 
made for the management of the forest on these 
lands and of the results which have thus far been 
attained. 

I shall deal directly, therefore, with the timber 
lands of the Kaul Lumber Company, and what forestry 
offers for them. 

These lands are located in central Alabama, and 
comprise mainly a forest of pure longleaf pine. Situ- 
ated at a rather unusual elevation for the species, and 
on the extreme north of its range, the timber is, 
nevertheless, equal to the best in the more widely 
known pineries of the Atlantic Coast and nearer the 
Gulf. The fine quality of the timber and the char- 
acter of the market which the product reaches has 
enabled the company to make a specialty of the choice 
grades of finishing and edge-grain flooring. 



Ame:rican Forest Congress 125 

The company has lumbered about 25,000 acres in 
a county adjoining that in which a portion of its 
present holdings are located, and where conditions 
are very similar. These cut-over lands had no general 
value for agriculture and were without satisfactory 
market value for other purposes. Their best use is 
for the growing of timber. A large amount of 
small timber was left standing on these lands after 
lumbering, because it did not pay to handle it. As 
a result, however, of ordinary methods of logging, 
the timber thus left was not sufficient in amount nor 
in a conditions to promise another cut of timber 
within a reasonable period and was an absolute waste. 
Thfe prompted the company to give serious considera- 
tion to the practicability of introducing modifications 
in the method of lumbering which would insure the 
leaving, in good condition, of a sufficient basis for 
another crop of timber. It was at this time that the 
Kaul Lumber Company availed itself of the offer of 
the Bureau of Forestry to cooperate with private 
owners in the conservative management of their 
timber lands, and a working plan was prepared for 
the management of the forest in accordance with 
which the lumbering is now being done. 

At the present rate of production, the company will 
lumber over its holdings in about twenty years' time. 
The kernel of the problem was, therefore, to so adjust 
matters that at the end of this period a second crop 
might be ready for cutting and lumbering might 
continue without interruption. What the company 
particularly wanted, then, were the measurements 
necessary to show with a fair degree of accuracy the 
rate of growth of the important tree — the longleaf 
pine — under the conditions obtaining on its cut-over 
lands, the rate of increase in material, and also in 



126 Proci:e:dings of the 

money per acre per annum, and the return on the 
capital invested in the land and that portion of the 
merchantable timber which it would be necessary to 
hold over until a second cutting. 

Actual measurement of the forest on 5 per cent, 
of the lands developed the fact that by curtailing the 
present cut by less than 20 per cent, the company 
could, after twenty years, again obtain an amount 
equal to 45 per cent, of the present cut. This at the 
present value of stumpage, figuring at compound 
interest, is a 2 per cent, investment, but assuming a 
rise in stumpage value to $5, it is a 6 per cent, 
investment. Should the value of stumpage reach $10 
per thousand, which we confidently believe will be the 
case, the value of the timber in twenty years' time 
will represent an investment of 10 per cent : Included 
in the calculation is a liberal allowance for the value 
of the land and of the timber held over, and for 
taxes, and cost of protection. 

This assumption of a rise in the value of yellow 
pine stumpage leads to certain general considerations 
which influence the practicability of forestry, and 
brings in a speculative feature of the lumber business 
in the South. It is only recently that economic 
conditions have justified the yellow pine lumberman 
in considering seriously the possibility of holding his 
cut-over lands to lumber a second time. Up to a 
comparatively recent date the value of pine stumpage 
in the South was exceedingly low ; means of transpor- 
tation to market were unsatisfactory; the market 
itself was restricted and uncertain; and competition 
with Northern pine was keen. Of late years, however, 
the development of Southern timberlands has been 
phenomenal. The growing scarcity of longleaf pine 
and the steadily increasing demand for it renders 



American Forest Congress 127 

certain a further rise in its stumpage value. Many 
lumbermen who acquire stumpage at 50 cents per 
thousand now credit it in their operations with $2.50 
to $3.50, and believe that in twenty years it will have 
a value of at least $10 per thousand. This probable 
rise in the value of longleaf pine stumpage is the 
obvious reason for the existence of companies which 
hold large timber tracts, but do not operate them. 

Just here it will be well to emphasize a point which 
has an important bearing upon the calculations of 
the financial results of lumbering longleaf pine 
conservatively. The timber which the Kaul Lumber 
Company leaves standing after lumbering, consists 
entirely of small trees below 18 inches in diameter 
on the stump, the value of which is considerably below 
the average run of the forest. Every tree contains 
more or less material which produces lumber of so 
low a grade that it hardly pays the cost of manufacture, 
but the smaller trees saw out the grades of low value 
in far greater proportion than the larger trees. 

In connection with the preparation of a detailed plan 
for the conservative management of the company's 
timber lands, an extensive investigation was made 
in our saw mill at Hollins, Ala., to determine the 
amounts and comparative values of the grades which 
trees of different sizes will produce. The result of 
this experiment proved conclusively the relatively low 
value of the lumber produced from small trees, and 
was an important factor in influencing the company 
to lumber conservatively — in other words, it went 
still farther to establish the bad business policy of 
putting small trees into the mill, rather than leaving 
them to reach a more profitable size. 

I have found that in forestry, as well as in lumbering, 
close attention to details is the key to success, and 



128 Proce^edings of the 

often marks the difference between conservative and 
destructive lumbering. A general lack of appreciation 
among the woodsmen of the value of the raw material, 
coupled with an entire disregard of the potential value 
of immature trees, leads naturally to many forms of 
excessive waste. Stringent rules and constant super- 
vision are necessary to enforce careful work in the 
woods. 

On our lands we have developed a system of 
markings for cuttings which is cheap and effective. 
Instead of marking all to be left standing or all trees 
to be cut, we mark to be left standing only those trees 
slightly below the diameter limit; for example, if we 
are logging to i8 inches, we mark to be left standing 
trees from 12 to 17 inches which might otherwise be 
cut. It is obvious that the marking of smaller trees 
is not necessary, since they would not be taken in any 
case. Under this system the markings cost us approxi- 
mately 3 cents per acre. 

Great care is taken in the fellings not to break or 
otherwise injure the small growing timber. Trees 
are thrown away from clumps of promising young 
growth, and slash is not allowed to accumulate around 
trees which are left standing — a precaution necessary 
to avoid damage in case of slash fires. 

In our railroad construction we avoid as much as 
possible the use of longleaf pine; not only that which 
is merchantable at present, but those trees which will 
become merchantable within the next twenty years. 
On our main line longleaf pine ties are still used, but 
they are either sawn at the mill from rough and 
knotty top logs, or they are hewn from dead and 
down timber throughout the forest. Ties for the 
temporary spurs are hewn from valueless hardwoods. 
For corduroy and cribbing, defective pine is used, and 



American Forest Congress 129 

this only when hardwood of proper dimensions is not 
available. The logging engines burn either coal or 
pine knots, or wood cut from tops ; no live timber is 
cut for fuel. The use of tops, both in logging opera- 
tions and for fuel, is encouraged, for this not only 
saves much valuable timber, but cleans up the slash 
and reduces the danger from fire. 

Except where extra length is required to fill special 
bills, it is a rule to cut short logs in 12 to 16- foot 
lengths. This makes it possible to work the trees well 
up into the tops, and uses the timber much more closely 
than is commonly done in longleaf pine logging where 
log lengths of 25 to 36 feet are out and often a very 
large amount of merchantable material is left on the 
ground in tops. 

Tapping for turpentine has been a fruitful cause 
of destruction in forests of longleaf pine. With the 
greatly increased demand for naval stores, it has 
become customary all over the South to box the 
smallest trees for turpentine. After a few years an 
abandoned turpentine orchard is a scene of utter ruin. 
The loss entailed to the productive capacity of the 
forest is enormous. Improved methods of turpentin- 
ing are suggested which greatly limit the boxing and 
chipping of the trees. Small credence will be placed 
in their effectiveness in avoiding deterioration of the 
forest, especially by the lumberman who has seen in 
thousands of cases the loss in lumber value through 
the after effects of fire and decay which has resulted 
from the mere notching of trees to test their grain. 
On our lands turpentining has been limited absolutely 
to the trees which will be cut for the saw mill, and we 
turpentine only tw^o years in advance of lumbering. 
The same mark indicates the trees which are not to be 
turpentined nor cut for lumber. As long as tapping 



130 Procejkdings of the: 

for turpentine is confined to those trees which will 
within the next two years be cut for sawlogs, damage 
to the timber is improbable, and the question of the 
advisability of boxing for turpentine is reduced to 
one of present profits. Whether the revenue derived 
from turpentine or from the lease of boxing rights 
exceeds the loss from the deterioration of the timber 
before it can be cut is a question which, in my judg- 
ment, depends very largely upon the promptness with 
which logging can be made to follow the orcharding. 

In conclusion I want to say a word about the 
methods of the Bureau of Forestry as I know them 
on the ground, and regarding, from my own expe- 
rience, the opportunity which cooperative work with 
that Bureau ofifers to lumbermen. The working plan 
for our lands, which, I am told, you will soon have 
an opportunity to see in the form of a bulletin of the 
Bureau of Forestry, has pleased me greatly. It has 
taken up in a direct and practical way the business 
considerations which the best management of the forest 
presents. 

I am free to confess that I turned to forestry with 
some doubts. I was not entirely sure that its policy, 
admirable in the abstract, concerns itself sufficiently 
with business considerations to be of real use to the 
actual operator, but in taking up, on our own ground, 
the forest problems which confronted us, the Bureau 
of Forestry has demonstrated, on our tract at least, 
the eminently practical character of its work. 

I have been struck for a long time, and with in- 
creasing force, with the fact that the lumber industry 
deserves recognition in the scientific work of the Gov- 
ernment just as much as the work of the farmer and 
the stockman. We lumberman represent as a whole 
the fourth greatest industry of the United States, and 



American Forest Congress 131 

it is upon our use of the forests, the experts tell us, 
that the national prosperity largely depends. In the 
Bureau of Forestry, I have found that recognition 
of the lumber interests which it was my opinion that 
the Government should offer. I wish, simply because 
we have profited by the work of this Bureau, to urge 
upon you your opportunity to take advantage of the 
same offer of cooperation which has benefited us. 



IS FORESTRY PRACTICABLE IN THE 
NORTHWEST? 

BY 

VICTOR H. BECKMAN 

Editor Pacific Lumber Trade Jotirnal 

nrHE Committee on Arrangements honored me 
by assigning me the question of "Is Forestry 
Practicable in the Northwest?" This is a pretty diffi- 
cult subject, from the purely commercial standpoint, 
but one that admits, nevertheless, of much thought and 
study by the constituency I represent. 

Lumbering is the chief industry of the Pacific 
Northwest, comprising the States of Washington, 
Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, and the province of 
British Columbia. In this vast section, bounded on 
the north by Alaska, on the south by California, on 
the west by the boundless Pacific Ocean, and on the 
east by the Rocky Mountains, are upward of 165,000 
men employed in the destruction of the "last and best 
stand of timber," for commercial uses, to whom are 
paid annually in wages approximately $75,000,000, 
and upon whose labor depends the bread and butter 
of nearly 400,000 people. The annual output in this 
territory is about 5,000,000,000 feet of lumber and 
6,000,000,000 shingles. 

The amount of accessible timber in the Pacific 
Northwest is about 400,000,000,000 feet. Forest fires, 
owing to lax methods and laws, have destroyed as 
much timber as has been cut by the lumbermen, and 
the result of the depletion by man and the elements 
is apparent in the fact that the best timber contiguous 
to water and railroad has in many instances been cut 



American Forest Congress 133 

off, and logging railroads are yearly being introduced 
for the purpose of going further into the heart of the 
forest. Much timber is annually destroyed by the 
ranchers, who burn off large areas for clearing pur- 
poses. The time, therefore, is not far off when the 
logging operations must be transferred to the moun- 
tains. Therefore the shrewd lumberman is giving 
some thought to preserving the existing forests and 
the propagation of new timber. 

Reproduction of trees without assistance is a slow 
process and not entirely successful. The greatest 
commercial wood in the Pacific Northwest is Douglas 
fir. This occurs in vast bodies and is intermingled 
with spruce, hemlock, and red cedar. The great belt 
of spruce lies on the west side of the coast range of 
mountains, the finest area of red cedar is found in 
the northwestern portion of the State of Washington, 
and British Columbia, and apparently ceases after it 
passes the Columbia River. Hemlock is found with 
fir, spruce, and cedar, and is more of a general char- 
acter than the two latter woods. In Eastern Wash- 
ington, Idaho, and Montana the principal commercial 
woods are white and yellow pine and tamarack — all 
reproducing readily. In Southern Oregon sugar pine 
appears and is a continuation of the belt having its 
origin in California. 

Observation shows that in seven cases out of ten, 
when Douglas fir is cut, the reproduction is hemlock, 
an inferior wood, commercially speaking, although 
superior to the Pennsylvania variety. Where the 
ground has been burned over by forest fires many 
years elapse before the soil becomes sufficiently nutri- 
tious to reproduce its species. Where hemlock is 
found intermingled with fir it becomes necessary to 
cut the former at once, because when left without 



134 Proce:e:dings o^ mt 

the sheltering shade of the fir it soon dies and decays. 

There has been no systematic effort in the direction 
of tree planting in this section, the aim being rather 
to preserve the standing timber from forest fires and 
waste in cutting. Two years ago the writer took up the 
matter of an effective forest fire law, and the result 
was the passage of an act by the legislature of the 
State of Washington making it a penalty to set fires 
during the closed season, without permits from the 
county commissioners. The law has worked very well, 
but it is in need of enforcement, and to this end it is 
quite probable a State fire warden will be appointed at 
the coming session of the legislature. Oregon and 
Montana are also awake to the needs of ample forest 
fire protection and will probably enact proper laws 
before long. 

The waste in the woods and mills amount annually 
to about 25 per cent. ; or, in other words, about 
1,000,000,000 feet per annum is burned in the woods 
or the refuse burners, because there is no market 
available for the by-products. This is equivalent to 
100,000 dwellings. Distance from market and prohibi- 
tive freights are responsible for this waste. For 
example, the Missouri River territory, composed of 
Nebraska, Kansas, and South Dakota, consume an- 
nually 162,000 car loads of lumber products, of which 
the Pacific coast contributes 9,165 car loads annually, 
and although the difference in the haul from Portland 
to St. Paul and Omaha is only one mile, it costs $15 
per 1,000 freight on lumber sold at the mill for $5 to 
ship same to Omaha, as against $12 per 1,000 feet to 
St. Paul. Consequently the side lumber is burned. 

Forestry is practicable in the Pacific Northwest. 
The standing timber is its greatest crop — a crop that 
can be harvested at any time, and is not dependent on 



American Forest Congress 135 

climatic changes. It should be propagated as well as 
preserved. Individuals will not do it, and the burden 
will fall on the State and Federal Government. It 
occurs to me that if it were possible to enact laws 
similar to those in force in Germany and Sweden, 
where the lumberman is compelled to plant a tree 
for every one cut down, the question of the future 
supply of timber would take care of itself. In some 
of the European countries, I am told, the State encour- 
ages the planting of trees on waste places by children, 
at certain times of the year, where each public school 
scholar plants a tree, and the idea of forest culture 
and preservation is one of the studies of the public 
school system. This idea would be worthy of emula- 
tion in the United States. Logged off lands should 
be looked after by a State forester, and should be 
re-seeded as soon as cut off. In the desert places 
effort should be made to plant suitable trees with the 
view not only to timber but other useful purposes. 
For example, there are large areas of treeless land 
in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Montana, where 
walnut, cherry and other valuable varieties of trees 
would grow to perfection. The road commissioners 
should make it their duty to plant trees along the 
roadways and a special fund provided for this purpose. 
This is as important as good roads. 

Care should be taken by the State and Federal Gov- 
ernment to protect the headwaters of streams. The 
source of water depends on the preservation of forests. 
In Spain, the reckless cutting of trees at the head- 
waters of streams many years ago has converted large 
sections of fertile lands into arid deserts, and the same 
is true elsewhere. Trees and vegetation hold moisture 
and prevent floods and thus create a steady and perma- 
nent flow of water to irrigate the parched soil and 
induce fertility in place of drouth. 



136 Proce:e:dings o^ the: 

Scientific forestry will create permanent wealth for 
the Pacific Northwest. It means much to the entire 
commonwealth because it will not only solve the ques- 
tion of reproduction, but can make the desert bloom, 
thus adding to the welfare of the people and creating 
productive land for the new settlers in the semi-arid 
sections of our country. In this the burden must be 
shared by all. The railroads should plant trees along 
their right of way, the lumbermen should replant his 
logged-off area, the farmer should set aside a portion 
of his holdings for tree culture, the road commis- 
sioners should provide for shade and comfort along 
the country roads, the State should encourage arbor 
days and teach the rising generation the value of 
forestry, and the Government should endeavor to 
demonstrate in a practical way the necessity for pre- 
serving the forests. 

There is no question so broad and so worthy of the 
attention of the people at large as the one of forestry, 
and it is indeed a good omen when so distinguished 
a man as our worthy President, Theodore Roosevelt, 
takes an interest in it. The lumbermen of the Pacific 
Northwest are his ''kind of people." 



INTEREST OF LUMBERMEN IN CON- 
SERVATIVE FORESTRY 

BY 

F. E. WEYERHAEUSER 

Weyerhaeuser Lumber Company 

PRACTICAL forestry ought to be of more interest 
and importance to lumbermen than to any other 
class of men. Unfortunately, they have not always 
appreciated this fact. There has been a firmly rooted 
idea that forestry was purely theoretical and incapable 
of application in a business way; a prejudice which, 
in large part through the influence of the Bureau of 
Forestry, is now beginning to disappear. At present 
lumbermen are ready to consider seriously any propo- 
sition which may be made by those who have the 
conservative use of the forests at heart. 

Lumbermen have been averse also to uniting their 
interests with those of the government, because of a 
doubt of the business efficiency of some of the Govern- 
ment's work, and this in spite of the fact, which they 
recognize, that every possible step should be taken to 
protect the national land and timber from depreda- 
tions. 

The work of first importance in bringing about the 
adoption of practical forestry is the work of education. 
For this, every possible means of reaching the public 
mind must be employed, and above all the object lesson 
of practical forestry applied on the ground. 

Everywhere throughout our timber regions Nature 
is struggling to renew her growth, and mere casual 
observation forces upon us the fact that the forests 
will reproduce themselves, if given a fair chance. But 



138 Proceedings of the 

there are three great obstacles which must be reckoned 
with in the profitable reproduction of timber, viz. : 
time, fire and taxes. Let us consider them briefly. 

First, as to time. Few lumbermen have watched 
the growth of timber long enough to know what its 
increase is. Forestry is a new idea to us, and we 
have given little thought to the future. Furthermore, 
forest growth varies greatly in different climates, and 
in different varieties of trees in the same climate. 
Before he can consider forestry the lumberman must 
know the rate of annual growth and the cost of pro- 
tecting the forests. This information the forester is 
able to give him. In other words, to tell how long 
it will take to produce a merchantable tree, and the 
average per acre. Knowing these facts, it is a com- 
paratively simple matter to determine whether a given 
forest can be maintained, and yet made to yield satis- 
factory returns to the owner. Throughout the South 
particularly, conditions are very favorable and promis- 
ing. The reports of the Bureau of Forestry lead us to 
believe confidently that there will be a profit in raising 
short leaf yellow pine timber, provided that the history 
of the increase in timber values in the North is repeated 
in the South, of which there seems to be no doubt. 
On the Pacific Coast also the climate is suited for the 
steady and rapid growth of excellent timber. At the 
present time values there are too low to insure any 
profit in conservative forestry, but a few years will 
undoubtedly bring about very different conditions. 

The average manufacturer holds too little land to 
supply his mills indefinitely at the present annual cut. 
To secure a permanent supply from his present hold- 
ings, either they must be increased or his mill capacity 
must be cut down. Eventually the big mills must 
disappear, and in their place we shall have smaller but 



American Forest Congress 139 

permanent ones. The fact that cut-over lands are 
covered with young growth, which before many years 
will be of merchantable size, will add greatly to their 
value, which will increase more and more as our tim- 
ber supply diminishes. Moreover, we understand that 
it is the policy of the Bureau of Forestry not to recom- 
mend the adoption of working plans where they cannot 
be carried out profitably. When business men fully 
appreciate this fact, it will go far toward securing their 
cooperation. 

The next obstacle, more important because harder 
to overcome, is fire. I am frank enough to say that in 
this matter lumbermen themselves are largely respon- 
sible, sometimes even to the extent of fighting reform. 
For example: two years ago a bill was proposed in 
Minnesota providing for the burning of slashings. 
Because of the opposition of the lumbermen it was 
never reported out of the committee. Since then the 
Government has required the burning of slashings on 
the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. The wise and 
moderate regulations suggested by the Bureau of 
Forestry were introduced with complete success. It 
was a splendid object lesson. A wisely-drawn bill 
presented to the Legislature to-day would be supported 
by the best of lumbermen. 

But the lumberman is not only culprit but sufferer 
also, and he must be protected against loss from fire 
by the rigid enforcement of proper laws. With a suffi- 
cient patrol during dry seasons, and reasonable care 
on the part of those who start fires, this source of awful 
destruction can certainly be checked, though it never 
can be entirely eliminated. 

The final obstacle is taxes. If anywhere, it is here 
that the lumberman practicing forestry under present 
conditions will be checked, for the lumberman, more 



I40 Proc£:e:dings o^ the 

than any other manufacturer, is the subject of heavy 
taxation. The local assessor feels that the timber 
may soon be cut, and that he must "make hay while 
the sun shines." This policy of drastic taxation results 
inevitably in the slashing of the timber and the com- 
plete destruction of the forest. Here, as before, v^e 
meet with the urgent necessity of missionary work 
in the interest of the forest. 

It has been suggested that land held for forestry 
purposes be taxed with special leniency, or perhaps 
that the bulk of the tax be transferred from the 
standing timber to the logs when cut. It certainly is 
not just that land which can produce but one crop in 
forty years should be taxed on the same scale as land 
which produces an annual crop. "Death by taxation" 
would be the coroner's verdict on many a magnificent 
forest now laid low. Assuming that the land held for 
forestry purposes is valuable only for timber, the State 
would far better collect a low annual tax over a long 
period of years than levy a heavy tax for a short 
period; and this is obvious when we consider that an 
important industry is thus maintained, and a consider- 
able and constant pay-roll secured. 

The conclusion we reach with reference to private 
effort is, that forestry is practical, and can be applied 
profitably, under favorable conditions; but that only 
by tremendous effort can the lumberman himself, the 
legislator and the voter be made to realize its impor- 
tance and its possibilities. Much has already been 
done, and we congratulate the Agricultural Depart- 
ment and the Bureau of Forestry on the able and 
efficient manner in which information is being dissemi- 
nated. It is safe to predict that their efforts will be 
followed by actual results. 

All arguments in favor of the adoption of conserva- 



American Fori:st Congress 141 

tive lumbering by the individual are still more forcible 
and conclusive when used concerning the adoption of 
them by the State or the National Government on 
forest reserves. The question of taxes is at once 
disposed of, the fire situation is in the hands of those 
who have ample authority to enforce laws, and the 
net results in profits can be figured on the lowest pos- 
sible basis. Furthermore, the State has vital interests 
far beyond those of the individual — such as the regu- 
lation of the water supply in streams, the benefit of 
forest areas from the standpoint of health and recrea- 
tion, the perpetual maintenance of a timber supply 
with its future effect on the price of forest products 
within the State; the making productive of otherwise 
useless land, and the maintenance of a valuable indus- 
try. For these and for many other reasons far-sighted 
lumbermen favor the rapid increase of State and Na- 
tional Forest Reserves, provided they are established 
only on proper lands. 

In conclusion let me say that it was the desire of the 
Honorable President of this Congress that Mr. F. 
Weyerhaeuser, of St. Paul, should address the conven- 
tion. Mr. Weyerhaeuser wishes me to say that he 
sincerely regrets his inability to be here, and further 
to assure those present that he and his associates in 
the lumber business are thoroughly in sympathy with 
the work and plans of the Association and the Bureau 
of Forestry, and stand ready to do whatever is in their 
power to cooperate in them. 



IMPORTANCE OF FORESTRY TO WOOD- 
WORKING INDUSTRIES 

BY 

M. C. MOORE 

Editor of Packages 

I COME before you as a delegate, representing the 
National Slack Cooperage Manufacturers' Associ- 
ation and the Beer Stock Manufacturers' Association 
of the United States, both of which organizations 
represent vast capital invested and an enormous con- 
sumption yearly of the best hardwood timber. I am 
also in close connection with the Tight Barrel Stave 
Manufacturers' Association, the National Box and 
Box Shook Manufacturers' Association, the Western 
Cigar Box Manufacturers' Association, the Eastern 
Cigar Box Manufacturers' Association, as well as other 
associations having to do with the manufacture of 
package material. 

Curiously enough, statistics are not in existence 
showing the immensity of the manufacture of wood 
in the various lines named. This is a source of great 
regret to me. Only by these figures could I hope to 
convey to those here in attendance any idea of the 
great amount of work turned out in all the various 
lines of wooden package making and the tremendous 
consumption of timber which is entailed in producing 
this finished work. 

White pine, yellow pine, poplar, basswood, gum, 
spruce, hemlock, and many other woods in lesser 
quantity, enter into the manufacture of boxes, and this 
industry, while not much heard from in a general way, 
is one of steadily increasing magnitude and importance. 



American Forest Congress 143 

It has been estimated that the manufacture of 
wooden boxes alone consumes toward 40 per cent, of 
the entire lumber production of the United States. 
When we consider what the aggregate of this lumber 
production is, and, if we further consider the fact that 
a wooden box is about the most familiar and fre- 
quently seen object on the face of the civilized earth, 
we can begin to appreciate the figure cut by the wooden 
box industry alone, in lumber consumption. 

The barrel, as we all know, takes no back seat as 
an industrial container, and it is more important com- 
mercially, and is made in greater numbers, with every 
year that passes, owing to the very rapid multiplication 
and growth of those industries which are extensive 
and, in many cases, exclusive, barrel users. The term 
"barrel," is a very elastic one, ranging from the cheaply 
constructed article made for truck, salt, and the like, 
through many stages of increase in value and quality, 
up to the expensive and substantial packages used for 
beer, whiskey, oil, meat packing, and numerous other 
purposes which require the utmost of tightness and 
quality in a package. 

When we stop to think how much flour, apples, 
sugar, meat, fish, truck, salt, cement, lime, whiskey, 
beer, oil, molasses, etc., are produced in the United 
States, and how largely they are dependent upon the 
barrel as a package, we begin to see what the con- 
sumption of timber — hardwood mainly — mounts up 
for barrel packages alone. The butter tub trade is 
also an extensive one, and takes a large amount of a 
very high class of hardwood timber. A great annual 
production of woodenware in the shape of tubs, pails, 
firkins, etc., comes in to swell the aggregate in the 
use of timber by the package making trade. It will 
thus be seen, without further enumeration of the 



144 Proceedings of the 

industries concerned, or enlargement upon their vast 
timber requirements, that the aggregate necessities of 
the wooden package manufacturers as to timber supply 
and use are truly enormous. 

In thinking of this subject of timber supply for these 
great trades two questions have been chiefly prominent 
in my mind. They are wholly practical and, in con- 
junction with this serious question of forest preserva- 
tion and supply, they must be adequately met and 
answered. 

In the first place, it is evident that the industries to 
which I have referred must have timber in large sup- 
plies steadily; in even larger supplies than they are 
using now. Where are these supplies to come from 
in the future? Will the application of scientific prin- 
ciples of forestry and of reforestation, enable these 
industries to continue operation indefinitely upon the 
great scale on which they are operating now, and upon 
which timber is now being used by them? 

Secondly, how will the application of the principles 
of scientific forestry effect the present manufacturers 
of lumber of cooperage stock, and, what amounts to 
the same thing, the manufacturers of wooden packages 
of all sorts? Should some certain system of forest 
preservation or reserve be put into obligatory opera- 
tion, how would it effect the rights of present lumber 
and cooperage stock manufacturers, and what effect, 
if any, would it have upon their forest holdings or 
those which they may in the future acquire ? 

These, I think, are the most practical points which 
can be brought up at this meeting, and they are points 
which must be most carefully considered, from all 
points of view, before any substantial progress can be 
made along forestry lines. 

I am sorry to say, because I believe that it ought 



American Fori:st Congress 145 

not to be so, that American manufacturers of lumber 
and cooperage stock are, as a rule, looking no farther 
ahead than the length of their own lives, or their own 
active business careers, as far as the consumption of 
timber is concerned. The manufacturer of timber 
reasons in a truly American way, *'Let me get the 
timber off and convert it into cash. That's my job. 
I reckon my descendants will be better off with the 
cash than with the timber, and I'm not looking out for 
the other fellow's descendants." 

This is a natural, and, under conditions prevailing 
up to the present time in this country, an inevitable 
process of reasoning, and the result has been the 
astounding depletion of our forests which has taken 
place mainly in the last fifty years. How are we going 
to induce the manufacturer to look at this thing differ- 
ently, as long as his timber holds out? This, as I see 
it, is the chief job which we have before us to-day. 

There is, I am pleased to say, one extensive coop- 
erage stock manufacturing concern which is now 
lumbering a forest extending over about 15,000 acres, 
on scientific principles, cutting each year only those 
trees which may be considered to have attained their 
growth, commercially speaking. The concern alluded 
to calculates that it will be able to lumber this tract 
indefinitely, for an untold number of years to come, 
by the steady application of this principle. It is the 
fact, however, that few great tracts suitable for the 
manufacture of cooperage stock now remain to be 
handled in this way, except in the south and on the 
Pacific coast. Most manufacturers are working from 
comparatively small tracts, from which they feel 
obliged to cut all the timber they can use, whether the 
same has or has not attained full growth. 

There is one fact which seems to me generally en- 



146 Proce:e:dings o^ the 

couraging to the principles of forestry as set forth at 
this convention. This is that many hardwood tracts 
which have been cut over by manufacturers a few 
years since, all timber of suitable size having then been 
cut away, have now, in the space of five or ten years 
in many cases, attained trees of sufficient size so that 
mills are again going into these sections, although 
they had been deserted, as exhausted, by other mills 
comparatively a few years ago. 

The industries which I represent must have timber. 
They must have a very great amount of it. They 
must have it steadily available on a strictly commercial 
basis. Now what can the principles of scientific for- 
estry do for these industries in a practical, business- 
like way which will place no hardship upon the 
manufacturers, but which will still preserve the timber 
indefinitely for their use ? All are greatly interested in 
this question and are looking to this Congress to 
furnish at least some advance toward a solution of it. 
What is the solution? 



IS FORESTRY PRACTICABLE IN THE 
NORTHEAST? 

BY 

JOHN A. DIX 

President Moose River Lumber Company, of New York 

'X'HE first Americans were not skilled in the art of 
husbandry ; they considered the forest only as the 
means of providing food and raiment, and in their 
minds the value of the trees was measured by the 
protection to wild animals which provided food or 
the skins of which entered into the economy and neces- 
sities of existence. An occasional and convenient piece 
of wood gave warmth or served as a means of prepar- 
ing food. 

It is fair to presume that the advent of the Pilgrim 
Fathers and by them the immediate removal of the 
forests to enable them to till the soil and reap the 
results donated by years of timber growth, caused the 
natives to look upon the new order of things with 
disapproval. The forests readily yielded to the axe 
of the pioneer; trees only impeded the progress and 
advance of settlements. A small percentage of the 
timber was converted into structures for homes and 
into stockades for protection, but the greater portion 
of the forests yielded to fire and was consumed as 
waste. From this beginning the consumption of the 
forests has been unremitting without consideration 
of a future supply. We hear occasionally that timber 
is getting "farther back" and more expensive, but as 
soon as the demand is keen the means of penetrating 
to the supply do not deter the lumbermen from obtain- 
ing the trees. 

Only recently the saw mills have deemed it import- 



148 Proc^ejdings o^ the: 

ant to utilize thin saws instead of converting an un- 
warrantable amount of good material into saw-dust. 

This tendency to economize in the manufacture of 
lumber is the suggestion that the end is in sight. 
Thoughtful people who are interested in forest lands, 
as well as those who derive an income from the 
products of the forests, are giving timely heed to 
advice and information now being given by the Bureau 
of Forestry as to the importance of reforesting lands 
which have contributed to the demands of civilization. 

Wise assistance given to the meagre natural condi- 
tions of reproduction will yield profitable results, and 
the lumbermen are not alone in their anxiety about 
future supply. Railroads and telegraph companies are 
considering and experimenting with methods of pre- 
serving timber which enters into their needs. If an 
economical wood preservative will add 50 per cent, to 
the efficiency of timber, the demands on the forest will 
be correspondingly decreased, and those who use, as 
well as those who provide, are much interested in the 
progress of this feature in the Bureau of Forestry. 
France, Germany and England have practiced this 
economy and demonstrated the practicability of treat- 
ing wood for railroad ties and telegraph poles, but 
their lesson has been one of necessity, not of foresight. 
We do not anticipate and practice these economies 
because timber has been abundant. We are, however, 
passing through a period of transition and the admi- 
rable work of the Bureau of Forestry in cooperating 
with the different States to achieve results which will 
mark a new epoch in forestry will be to the lasting 
benefit of future generations. 

Along with the accomplishment of reforesting, we 
should not be unmindful of the tremendous waste and 
permanent destruction of the soil resulting from forest 



American Forest Congress 149 

fires. Concerted action must be insured for the careful 
watching and successful preventing of fires in the 
forests. The successful method to accomplish this 
important work would be to employ at commensurate 
wages a competent and skillful fire warden to preside 
over a certain district and to employ under his direction 
the students from the several colleges of forestry. 
This experience for the students would be for a short 
period of time each year during the season of drought 
prior to the time when the shrubs and trees are bud- 
ding. Military colleges require students to devote a 
certain amount of time to become experienced in the 
art of drilling. Is it not quite as important that the 
colleges of forestry require practical experience? 

New York State has been active for a few years in 
planting seedlings of spruce, pine and hardwood on 
denuded lands. The work has been intelligently pros- 
ecuted by Col. William F. Fox, who is an ardent 
advocate of the importance and common sense practi- 
cability of this method of reproducing timber; of 
securing to the soil the properties Nature intended 
should exist. If proper encouragement is forthcom- 
ing, the systematic annual planting of seedlings will 
be carried out in the State parks, especially in the 
Adirondacks and the Catskills. There are important 
successful nurseries established for this purpose and 
the advocates of this method of reforesting believe and 
teach that the increased value of these denuded lands 
will be far in excess of the actual expense of planting. 
The beneficial results which will follow by the reten- 
tion of moisture, by the improvement of the soil and 
the contribution to the economy of commerce and 
navigation, all these are in line with American 
progress. It is a well known fact that each tree thus 
planted will contribute its share to the humus which 



ISO Procke:dings oi^ the: 

is the natural sponge or source of every mountain 
stream. If this source is protected or created we are 
at the very foundation of economy, assisting to create 
a condition of preventing torrents. 

Private owners of timberland should be encouraged 
to plant annually as compensation for the removal of 
trees, for the reseeding of burned lands, and thus make 
a beginning to restore the natural conditions of the 
soil. It has required years of education to have^this 
feature of forestry become attractive to the lumbermen, 
yet to-day it is with pride that New York State can 
announce to this Congress that denuded tracts are 
being planted. One lumber firm has successfully 
planted pine seed on a tract which had been burned, 
and the method employed was to sow the seed in rows 
of six feet and six feet apart, thus leaving a space 
between the rows which will be planted with seedlings 
as soon as they have attained sufficient growth, This 
same firm has established a nursery and is giving 
special care to the growing of spruce and pine seedlings 
for planting on its own preserve. 

The system of timber cutting or lumbering is of 
tremendous importance bearing upon the future 
growth, especially for spruce trees which no doubt are 
the most valuable products of the Adirondack forest 
to-day. The natural tendency of the spruce tree is 
to rest unless the proper amount of light is admitted 
to its immediate surroundings. The plan, therefore, 
of timber cutting is to remove mature trees, using 
judgment to cause as little destruction as possible to 
the small trees. The use of defective hardwood trees 
for the building of roads and bridges and for the use 
as skids will benefit the conditions of growth for the 
remaining spruce trees. 

The importance of leaving on high ground an occa- 



Ame:rican Forest Congre:ss 151 

sional mature tree for seed purposes cannot be too 
strongly urged. This will continue Nature's method 
of reproduction and not destroy all of the possibilities 
of future growth. The small trees will take on new 
life and reveal a marvellous increase of diameter if 
their condition is benefited by the removal of defective 
hardwood, and as an evidence of this future growth, 
data have been tabulated which reveal the following 
careful estimate. Virgin forests of spruce, if cut to 
a twelve-inch basis ; that is, all of the twelve-inch trees 
left standing, an equal product can be harvested from 
this same territory in a period of twenty years. Should 
the land be cut to a ten-inch basis, it will require forty 
years to reproduce, and should the cutting be made to 
an eight-inch basis, a century of growth will be re- 
quired for a yield equal to the original cutting or 
harvest. 

As an evidence of the resting qualities of spruce, 
a small tree of fifteen feet in height growing under- 
neath a cover of large trees, was cut down and exam- 
ined as to its annual rings. It revealed a growth of 
about one century, yet this tree, had the cover been 
removed, would have taken on new life, grown as 
rapidly as a vigorous young trees of a dozen years and 
been a competitor for an equally good yield of timber. 

Our population is not great enough to enable us to 
sweep and garnish our forests as practiced in some 
countries where the natives are glad to get the waste 
or fallen branches for fuel. On the Island of Madeira, 
fuel is annually grown from seeding the mountainous 
lands with pine seed. As soon as the trees have at- 
tained fifteen feet in height, they are carefully removed, 
roots and all, bundled and sold in the city of Funchal 
as the principal product for fuel. This process has 
been in existence for years and evidently is on a paying 



152 Proce:e:dings of the: 

basis. One can see the stages of growth from a few 
inches in height to the tree of sufficient size for market. 
We may be compelled to take a lesson from our Portu- 
guese friends if we continue to demand from the 
forests without contributing to future growth. 

Lumbermen, as a rule, do not spend time with 
theories which are not practical. The winning of 
bread by cutting wood is an old-time vocation, and 
the one is quite as difficult as the other ; the application 
of energy or brawn will obtain an equivalent to pur- 
chase bread, and no thought is expended on a possible 
plan to make two trees grow where there was but one. 
Yet our minds are turning to the reproduction of that 
opportunity of winning bread, and this Congress is 
an evidence of that trend of thought. 

Recently the beneficial results of having waste lands 
adjacent to cities covered with a growth of fir trees, 
have been discussed by professional men who believe 
that dusty cities can be improved from a sanitary point 
of view by having the outlying districts covered with 
pine trees. They realize that the trees will hold the 
sandy soil, bring back its fertility and give to the 
atmosphere the properties of the woods. Invalids seek 
the woods ; why not bring the forests to the cities and 
benefit those people who cannot go thither? 

Bulletins issued by the Bureau of Forestry under 
the wise, intelligent, and practical direction of Mr. 
Gifford Pinchot, have created a desire to demonstrate 
on the part of progressive lumbermen, that the fact of 
reforesting lands is important. This Congress will 
broaden the sphere of practical forestry. It is the 
nucleus of a movement that will take root in the soil 
of every State, and, like the proverbial mustard seed, 
spring up and wax into a great tree. 



OUR PACIFIC COAST FORESTS AND 

LOGGING AS DIFFERING FROM 

OTHER FORESTS 

BY 

COLONEL GEORGE H. EMERSON 

Vice-President The Northwestern Lumber Company, of Washington 

HTHE summit of the Cascade Mountains is the Hne 
of division between the timber of eastern and 
western Washington, also of eastern and western 
Oregon. To the east lie open pine forests, similar 
to those of the Southern and Eastern States. To the 
west is a dense jungle of giant trees. 

On the gravelly land of the western slope of the 
Cascades the timber is of moderate size and consists 
almost entirely of Douglas fir and red cedar, with 
moderate underbrush. The fir is from 24 to 40 inches 
in diameter, and from 100 to 150 feet tall and the 
cedars are of about the same diameter, but less height. 

On the lower bench and bottom lands, east of Puget 
Sound, and on the clay lands wherever found, fir, 
cedar, and hemlock intermingle, and near the coast 
spruce is abundant, sometimes growing alone, but more 
often with the fir and other woods. On these lands 
our large timber grows, fir and spruce from 40 to 80 
inches in diameter and from 150 to 250 feet in height. 
These dimensions are common, and 10 feet for fir or 
spruce, and 20 feet for cedars, are not extreme diam- 
eters. The hemlock is of less size; 18 to 24 on the 
stump is most common, 40 inches not exceptional. 

Beneath these trees often lie the fathers of the 
forest, still sound, pinned to the ground by the roots 



154 Proc^e:dings 0]p the; 

of trees themselves a hundred years old, and over and 
among all is a growth of salmon-berry, salal-berry, 
and other shrubs and tall ferns, making an almost 
impenetrable mass, so dense two miles is a good day's 
travel, on courses, for a woodsman. 

These tracts, where the timber is large, have few 
young trees, and the old giants are over-ripe. It is 
doubtful if they produce seed, and doubtful if their 
growth equals their decay on many townships. They 
cannot be thinned, all must be cut ; any left, as are the 
hemlock, and until recently the cedar, are broken by 
the falling of their neighbors, or blown down when 
their neighbors are gone. 

The mountain sides have deep canyons and the 
foothills are steep, and jointly they are most of the 
timber area of western Washington and Oregon. 
Methods of forestry adapted to eastern timber areas 
are useless here, as are eastern methods of logging. 

The first efforts to handle this timber were those 
of building "skid-roads" up the gulches, cutting the 
timber into eastern lengths, 12 to 24 feet, and then 
with six yoke of oxen the logs were hauled, one at a 
time, to the water. In those days there was no de- 
mand for cedar or hemlock, and both were left in the 
woods. Neither offered the per cent, of clear the fir 
and spruce offered, therefore why waste time on the 
low grades? The supply looked inexhaustible; stand- 
ing timber had little value; butt cuts of the hemlock 
sometimes sunk ; customers wanted only fir and spruce ; 
redwood furnished shingles ; why then use low grades 
or hemlock? 

On these old choppings all hemlock, cedar, low- 
grade fir and low-grade spruce trees, all broken cuts, 
all butts with center decay, all trees with "conchs" — 
indicating rot — all stubs, or dead trees, with loose bark. 



Ame:rican Forest Congre:ss 155 

all tops, from the clear trunk up, 50 to 150 feet in 
length, 20 to 60 inches in diameter, all these were left 
in the woods. 

As if fearful of taking too much of the forest to the 
mill the timber fallers vied with each other to place 
their chopping boards higher, and many a stump, 16 
to 20 feet in height, marks the success of their efforts. 

The aggregate of this waste reached over 60 per 
cent, of the forest and left the ground covered with 
tops, broken timber, and brush, many feet in thickness. 
To this, when dry, fire was set. The fire killed all 
timber left standing, burned any young trees and the 
hemlock seeded the ground. Later, the dead hemlock 
fell, and a few years after the first fire, a second, or 
even a third, went over the ground and the hemlocks 
were no more. Only tops and trunks and a desolate 
waste was left. Then the ferns and blackberry vines, 
as if to hide the shame, spread over all their mantle of 
verdure. 

In this way, and by fire in green timber, townships 
of lands, valuable only for the timber crop, have be- 
come worthless wastes. Where young forests should 
be growing to keep good our timber acreas, charred 
trunks are piled on trunks, under a tangle of vines. 

Times have changed somewhat. Steam skidders 
for yarding, and steam road engines for hauling, have 
replaced the bull team. The railroad is fast replacing 
the river. 

Cedar has become the most valuable of our woods^ 
and hemlock is found to be our most beautiful interior 
finish. Standing timber has a greater value and is 
cut closer, but enormous tops and most of the hemlock 
are still left in the woods. Logs with no clear cannot 
be handled at present prices of lumber without loss. 
The per cent, of the crop now saved is increased, but 



156 Proceedings oe the 

40 per cent, is still wasted, nor is it the worst. These 
choppings, with their continuous piles of tinder, are 
ready to flash into flame from the spark of a match, and 
when conditions are right they burn with a heat so 
intense it reaches to adjoining green trees, and they, 
burning like torches, create a whirlwind that, with 
the roar of an avalanche, twists the tops from the 
trunks. 

As before stated, the application of any method of 
forest perpetuation adapted to eastern woods is im- 
possible, yet most of the country where these forests 
grow, is valuable only for a timber crop, and could it 
be reseeded with fir and spruce when cut, and fire 
kept out, at the end of fifty years there could be har- 
vested a second crop of 50,000 to 100,000 feet per 
acre. The things necessary to accomplish that end 
appear at present almost impossible. They are: 

First, that all timber growing on the land be cut. 

Second, that all timber be removed. 

Third, that all left be burned. 

Fourth, that the seed, of the timber wanted, be 
sowed in the ashes. 

After this is done, the danger of fire is so small it 
need not be considered. 

Our seasons are sometimes divided, by strangers, 
into two, the wet season and the month of August. 
Vegetation, therefore, is of very rapid growth, and 
before another August, the ground would be too well 
covered to become dry, therefore no fires would run. 

To teach the people to utilize the product of our 
forest, so as to clear the land of all things of value, 
is one of the great duties of those who are anxious to 
see our forests perpetuated. The fir tops of our 
woods are sound, and sound knotted, and more durable 
for mining timber and railway ties than are the hearts 



Ame:rican Forest Congress 157 

of our logs, now furnished for these purposes, but they 
are worth in railroad ties, at this writing, less than 
$6.00 per thousand feet of manufactured lumber, 
while the cost of hauling and sawing exceeds that 
figure. Then, too, while hauling one of these tops, 
a surface clear log could be hauled, worth $6.50 or 
$7.00 per thousand feet, against $3.50 per thousand 
for the top in question. Again, while sawing this 
top into $6.00 lumber the mill could have sawed a 
$7.00 log into lumber, of which 40 per cent, would 
be clear, 40 per cent, good building grades, and only 
20 per cent. $6.00 lumber. Sawing the top the "saw" 
bill would be $2.50; on the good log perhaps $5.00 
or $6.00 per thousand feet, and the same is true of 
the hemlock, yet the hemlock is the best of box ma- 
terial, and the small per cent, of clear, different entirely 
from eastern woods of the same name, is a beautiful 
interior finish. 

Were we a little nearer the great markets of the 
United States, or were our freight rates less, or were 
the demand a little larger, these tops and hemlock 
could be handled, and the greatest difficulty in perpet- 
uating our forests thus removed. 

The bark of this hemlock is superior in tanning 
qualities; tanning extract plants would help solve the 
problem ; pulp mills could use to advantage our hem- 
lock and waste spruce; fir tops, stumps, and roots are 
well supplied with pitch, and experiments indicate the 
values obtained from those sources in turpentine, tar, 
pitch, rosin, wood alcohol, creosote, lamp black and 
charcoal, and other chemicals, are greater than the 
balance of the tree affords in lumber. Short lengths 
of our cedar make shingles ; short lengths of our 
spruce make staves; short lengths of our fir make 
porch flooring and car siding; fir bark and limbs 



158 Proceedings o^ the 

should have a value; when our timber is utilized as 
our cattle and hogs are utilized, and every part saved, 
the other things required to perpetuate our western 
Washington forest will follow as good investments. 

To the perfecting and teaching of these methods, 
therefore, we should turn the attention of our Gov- 
ernment, our chemists, and those who desire the per- 
petuation of our forests. By such methods our lands 
would be placed in the best condition for future timber 
crops, and those crops could be fir, spruce, cedar, black 
walnut, ash, or maple, and any of these would be 
ready to harvest before our present timber is exhausted. 

Tardy forest reserves make possible wise provisions 
for the disposition and perpetuation of the small rem- 
nant of our timber still in the hands of the Govern- 
ment, but laws for the use and perpetuation of this 
timber must vary with location. No rule of selection 
can be applied to western Washington or western 
Oregon; no rule of clean cutting and reseeding can 
be applied to eastern Washington or eastern Oregon. 
Western Washington and western Oregon rainwall and 
water supply are excessive, and need not be considered ; 
eastern Washington and eastern Oregon need first 
consideration be given to these questions; a general 
law, to apply to the cutting and perpetuating of the 
timber on all Government reserves, would prove as 
wrong as have our laws in their application to these 
areas. 

To these pathless jungles, where no man could live 
except upon provisions packed upon his back, where 
to make a clearing of an acre costs labor worth $200 
and destroys timber worth $50 more; where the sun 
sends but pencils of light, and the fallen timber, of 
centuries back, is as sound as if always submerged; 
where the surface is made up of gulches, canyons, and 



American Forest Congress 159 

mountain sides; where agriculture is impossible, and 
the only value is timber, our Government extended its 
Homestead and Pre-emption laws, framed for our 
prairies. To acquire title one was supposed to settle 
on the land, make it his home, make a clearing, plant 
a crop, build a house, and maintain a residence. 

To acquire title, therefore, he must waste time which 
should go to the increasing of our national wealth, 
must destroy a portion of the timber, to which he is 
striving to obtain title, and thus destroy national 
wealth, must deprive his family of his support, must 
live in danger of falling trees, of accidents, with no 
one near, or he must perjure himself, and little wonder 
he did the latter, when by doing so he only chose 
between evils, and chose the one of least real harm. 
Not quite perjured himself, for he could cut some 
brush, set out a few fruit trees in the forest and a 
few cabbages, visit the "claim" every six months, pack 
in a half window for his "shake shack," leave an axe 
and a fry-pan there, and thus ease his conscience and 
those of his witnesses when the day of final proof 
arrived. 

In this proof he had to swear the land was "chiefly 
valuable for agricultural purposes," but the decision 
of the General Land Office eased his conscience by 
declaring all land "not stony or gravelly was argri- 
cultural," yet during his lifetime he never expected 
to see anything grown on this land but timber. Pub- 
lic opinion approved such an evasion of a ridiculous 
law, and our Government, not the settlers, should be 
investigated when complaint has been made, by a less 
fortunate, and the clearing has been hard to find and 
the house does not look as if ever used for a home. 

Our timber act was more just, but framed in the 
interest of land grabbers. These stood ready to loan 



i6o Proceedings o^ the 

money needed to pay for the land, perhaps without 
exacting a promise, so the claimant could swear "he 
took the land for his own exclusive use and profit" 
and "had not promised to mortgage or deed." Later 
he could change his mind. 

Still more ridiculous and criminally wrong was the 
lieu land law, by which anyone claiming within a 
forest reserve, relinquished to the Government, and 
selected equal areas outside the reserve. 

Floating on Puget Sound upon a summer's day, 
when gentle zephyrs fill the sail of the boat, one's 
languid gaze wanders back over vast areas of dense, 
dark green woodlands, on up the slopes of the moun- 
tains, until arrested by the towering snow-cap of 
Rainier, 14,000 feet above; to the south, not seen, 
stand St. Helen, Adams, Hood, and Jefferson, of 
nearly equal height, and to the west glisten the Olympic 
range with long reaches of snow-capped peaks. Part 
of these peaks are in the Rainier, part in the Olympic 
and part in the Cascade reserve, and part are also 
within railroad grants, and for these glaciers and rocks 
our Government has exchanged some of her best tim- 
bered townships. Along the lower side of some of 
these mountains, loggers have been busy with axe and 
fire, and for their denuded, fire-swept lands, our Gov- 
ernment has given fresh timbered areas. Many men 
who have secured a quarter section, under the 
Homestead or Pre-emption or Timber Act, have been 
investigated for fraud. These larger selections are 
authorized by Act of Congress and have not been 
questioned. 

In the home of the fir, the spruce, and the cedar, the 
song of the axe, the saw, and the hammer begins with 
the dawn and rests only with the close of the day. 
Go where you will the crop of the centuries is being 



American Poorest Congri:ss i6i 

harvested. With each breath a monarch of the forest 
falls; engines whistle to engines, as the huge trunks 
of these noble trees are dragged to the water or to the 
railroad ; the locomotive whistles to the mill, as it 
comes with long trains of wealth of our forests, and 
the mill whistles back to the locomotive, as its saws 
sing while they work ; steamers for coastwise and trains 
for eastern markets whistle back to the mill, as they 
hasten with its product; the deep loaded ship spreads 
its sail and the winds waft our lumber to the far 
corners of the earth; in all ways the harvest goes 
merrily on, and the song of the axe, the saw, and the 
hammer, are sweet to the ears of our people, for they 
sing of industry, prosperity, and happy homes. 

But is there no other note in the song? Do these 
people ever think of the centuries their crop has been 
growing? Does it never occur to them they are the 
trustees of an heritage for future generations, to be 
guarded, cared for and watched, used from sparingly 
as necessity requires, or price justifies, but not to be 
wantonly wasted or destroyed, or disposed of without 
adequate returns? And how are they fulfilling their 
trust? 

They are leaving nearly half of the crop in the 
woods to be burned, and burning, destroy more, and 
for the half they are marketing they are obtaining no 
proper equivalent. They are leaving the ground a 
fire-swept, desolate waste, where fire will follow fire, 
until all things valuable have been destroyed. They 
are taking to themselves the whole of the heritage 
entrusted to them, and in return are not even scatter- 
ing a few seeds for the benefit of their children. They 
are vandals, but no law can reach them. They would 
be adjudged insane, except for the necessity which 
governs. The sacred right of property is theirs, and 
they can do as they will with their own. 



i62 Proce:e:dings o^ the 

They can only be reached, and these grave errors 
corrected, by making other methods to their pecuniary 
interest; teach them, therefore, the value of their tim- 
ber ; show them ways of turning their waste to profit ; 
send to them pulp mills, chemical works and tanning 
extract plants; help them to show the transcontinental 
railroads the short-sighted policy they are pursuing; 
build for them a double track road and give to them 
lower freight rates and from that, now wasted, they 
will furnish ties for the North, boxes for the Middle 
West, cheaper lumber for your homes, perpetuate their 
forests, operate their mills through the centuries, and 
the song of the axe, the saw, and the hammer will have 
no note of discord and continue in the land of the fir, 
the spruce, and the cedar. 



THE ADVANCE IN THE VALUE OF 
STUMPAGE 

BY 

JAMES T. BARBER 

President Northwestern Lumber Company, Wisconsin 

HTHE selection of the writer to furnish for your con- 
sideration information on this subject, necessarily 
confines the question to the value of white pine stump- 
age in Wisconsin, as his experience and observation 
have been confined to this quality of timber and to 
this locality. Every one, at all familiar with timber 
values, knows that the advance in white ,pine stumpage 
in this State in the past thirty years, has been phe- 
nomenal, but few realize its full extent. This advance 
has been peculiar when compared to other property, 
in that, while the increase in values has not been 
regular and continual, the market price of pine stump- 
age has never taken a step backward. Every change 
in prices, from year to year, has been upward. 

Perhaps as good an illustration of the increase in 
values of this class of property, covering practically the 
entire period of development of extensive lumbering 
operations in Wisconsin, is the experience of Cornell 
University. In 1862 the Congress of the United States 
apportioned over 9,000,000 acres of land to the differ- 
ent States, the proceeds of which were to be devoted, 
by the several States, to the establishing and mainte- 
nance of schools and colleges in which such branches 
of learning as are related to agriculture should be 
taught. Scrip, called Agricultural College Scrip, was 
issued to the several States and by them placed upon 



104 Proceedings op* the 

the market. In 1865 this scrip sold at fifty cents per 
acre, and in 1866 Honorable Ezra Cornell, who had 
previously founded and endowed Cornell University, 
at Ithaca, New York, bought something over 500,000 
acres of this scrip from the State of New York, paying 
therefore 60 cents an acres for the account of the 
University. At this time the college was not in a 
financial condition to purchase and locate this large 
amount of property, and Mr. Cornell assumed to pay 
for the scrip and also the expense of locating it on 
pine lands in Wisconsin. This action was taken, and 
so well was the work done that the scrip cost of the 
pine stumpage was from six to ten cents per thousand 
feet. 

In 1874, shortly before Mr. Cornell died, he turned 
over the property to the University, and at that time 
the cost, including all expenses, was over $500,000, or 
possibly fifteen cents per thousand feet. Shortly after 
the University took charge, a systematic effort was 
made to dispose of the timber, and at the close of 
1882, the aggregate sales amounted to $3,700,000, this 
including the first large sale of 100,000 acres at $4 
per acre, or, say, thirty to forty cents per thousand 
feet, made in 1873. At this time the cost of the 
property, including taxes and all other expenses, had 
risen to $2,200,000. 

The University has now practically closed out its 
timber holdings in Wisconsin, and the net result of the 
purchase of the 500,000 acres by Mr. Cornell, in 1866, 
at sixty cents per acre, after deducting cost of the 
scrip and locating the same, taxes, and all other ex- 
penses, was within a very few dollars of $5,500,000. 
The University property was wonderfully well handled, 
the top of the market being obtained in almost every 
sale. It has only been within the last few years that 



American Forest Congress 165 

any other value than that of pine stumpage was placed 
upon their lands. Some of the more recent sales of 
pine have been on the basis of ten and twelve dollars 
per thousand and on estimates including much timber 
which would not have been considered at all ten years 
ago. 

Representatives from the South can easily remember 
the twenty and thirty cent period, although it soon 
recedes into ancient history as they count their present 
three and four dollar values, and even our friends from 
the Coast, as they watch those beautiful fir trees go 
into logs and $1.00 and $1.50 stumpage, can smile as 
they recall the purchase at ten and fifteen cents. 

Is it too much to ask you to believe that the history 
of Wisconsin will repeat itself in the South and West, 
and that the timbers owners of those regions may 
watch the continual advance of values until at least the 
ten dollar and twelve dollar epoch arrives? 



IMPORTANCE OF LUMBER STATISTICS 

BY 
GEORGE K. SMITH 

Secretary National Lumber Manufacturers Association 

I N the lumber industry, as in all others, the con- 
stantly recurring questions to be answered daily, 
monthly and annually, are ''How much?" and "How 
many?" In order that the manager of a manufactur- 
ing plant may have the means of answering these ques- 
tions, daily reports from each department are made, 
weekly statements are prepared, monthly summaries 
are compiled, and annual reports are evolved. Such 
collections of figures as these are known by the general 
term of "statistics." The original use of the word 
was confined to the enumeration of persons, but cus- 
tom has made it apply to any systematic collection of 
figures. 

In a most valuable and comprehensive paper entitled 
"Stumpage," read by R. A. Long, of Kansas City, 
at the thirteenth annual meeting of the Southern Lum- 
ber Manufacturers' Association, New Orleans, Janu- 
ary, 1903, this sentence was used, "Knowledge is an 
asset, the result of which is profit." For the purpose 
of this discussion, let us paraphrase this sentence and 
say, "Statistics are an asset, the result of which is 
profit, and the lack of them a liability, the result of 
which is loss." 

In order that we may learn how this asset is acquired, 
let us ask the manager of a large plant, how much it. 
costs to produce 1,000 feet of lumber, the unit of all 



Ame:rican Forest Congress 167 

lumber transaction, and follow him as he refers to 
various reports to prepare the answer. 

First, the actual or arbitrary price of stumpage ; then 
the log cutters, log haulers, the scalers, loading crew, 
and log train reports combined, give the figures of the 
raw material in the pond; the scale sheets on the log- 
deck, or the tally sheet at the tail of the mill, gives the 
daily output; then comes yard and dry-kilns, planing 
mill and loading dock, and the shipping ticket is ready 
for the invoice clerk. 

With additions to cover the proper portions for 
superintendence, insurance, interest, taxes, and depre- 
ciation, the manager has a dozen or fifteen items whose 
sum is the desired answer. He has done so well in 
promptly supplying the desired information that we 
foUov^ with another "how much?" This time it is: 
"How much lumber do you make each month?" 

The saw-mill reports are consulted, and if steady 
time has been made, twenty-five or twenty-six items 
are added, and the result announced. Then comes the 
total cut and shipments for the year, with total cost, 
and gross and net receipts, and the systematic collec- 
tion of figures called "statistics" is ready for the annual 
meeting, to be discussed and digested by the directors. 

These figures are of the utmost importance to the 
stockholders for they reflect in concrete form the profit 
or loss for the year. Every effort is made to have 
them correct, and they are carefully preserved to be 
compared with the next series, month by month. 

In the operation of a single plant statistics can be 
easily obtained, because the manager has power to 
control all departments in his own immediate -circle. 
In speaking of the "circle" of the single operation, a 
diagram is suggested which represents the lumber 
producing field in its entirety. This diagram consists 



i68 Proce:e:dings o^ the: 

of three circles ; the first containing the single saw 
mill ; a larger circle including hundreds of small ones — 
the mills producing one kind of lumber ; and the third, 
one which includes both the others, and its area em- 
braces all the other lumber mills in the United States. 

In studying the annual report, one of the directors 
notices that the amount of lumber on hand is much 
larger than in. former years, and because the profits 
are still in lumber and not in cash, he asks the reason 
for the increase. To answer this, and if possible 
justify the condition, the manager must get figures 
outside the circle of his plant, and show how much 
other mills have. 

Foreseeing such a question, and realizing that it 
would be difficult for each mill to gather information 
systematically from all the other mills cutting a similar 
kind of lumber, the manager has already called his 
neighbors together and formed an association to gather 
statistics regarding stocks on hand. By consulting the 
figures furnished him from the headquarters of this 
association, he finds the mills in the "second" circle 
have more lumber than a year ago, and a summary 
of their stocks on hand shows a total increase of 
200,000,000 feet. The sales agent for the company 
is present, and is asked what effect this increase of 
stock on hand will have on values. He has not only 
studied the situation in the second circle, but has looked 
beyond into the third circle, and has discovered that 
the statistics of competitive woods, so far as he can 
learn, show a similar situation existing, and reports 
values in general, weak and declining. 

When the information resulting from statistics is 
revealed to the directors, its importance and value is 
recognized, a basis for intelligent action is secured, 
and instead of increasing their output, as originally 



American Forkst Congre:ss 169 

planned, they arrange to produce even less than their 
average, until their visible supply is reduced to normal 
proportions. 

After deciding on a course of action for the coming 
year, they fall into general conversation for a few 
minutes, when a new line of thought is opened by the 
questions "How many acres of timber did we cut this 
year?" and "How much timber have we standing?" 
Here is need of more statistics and the manager con- 
sults maps and records, and soon reports the exact 
conditions. As the amount is large, some one asks 
how much timber is there in the State, and what 
per cent, of it do they own? They call for statistics 
on this particular feature, but as the manager has not 
promoted an association for this purpose, he cannot 
answer. One of the directors has anticipated such a 
question, and produces Volume IX of the twelfth 
census, containing special reports on selected indus- 
tries, lumber and timber, covering pages 805 to 897. 
In this he finds, on page 840, the estimated total 
amount of timber in the State, and the percentage of 
their holdings is determined. 

Having discussed the operation in the first circle, 
and noted the answers given, and the stock conditions 
at the mills in the second, we naturally advance into 
the third circle and put the question "How much?" 
as applied to the entire industry. 

Before answering this, let us notice how the elabo- 
rate statements of the individual operation, in the first 
circle, are condensed for use in the second circle. All 
of the figures and reports used in producing the first 
exhibit of total cut, total shipments, and stock on hand, 
are discarded, and these three items from every plant 
in the second circle, form the basis of the answer we 
are novv^ seeking. 



170 PrOCEKDINGS 01^ THK 

Large figures are needed to describe the lumber 
manufacturing plants, the amount produced annually, 
and the amount of standing timber. Thirty-three 
thousand and thirty-five establishments were in opera- 
tion in 1900, and produced 35,084,160,000 feet, board 
measure, in that year. 

Ten kinds of timber, counting all hardwoods as one, 
show a total of 1,240,000,000,000 feet available for 
lumbering. These figures are interesting and impor- 
tant, but nowhere do we find the amount of lumber 
consumed annually, and the amount on hand at the 
beginning of each year; or, in other words, what 
proportion of the thirty-five billions was used during 
the calendar year, and what per cent, remained on 
hand. 

Attempts are made by the twelve lumber manufac- 
turers' associations composing the "National Lumber 
Manufacturers' Association," to procure these figures, 
but of the thirty-five billions shown to be produced, 
less than one-half is accounted for by these twelve 
associations. The need for, and the importance of 
exact information as to the total amount of lumber 
in the hands of the manufacturers at the beginning 
of each year will eventually draw all lumber producers 
together, and instead of depending almost entirely on 
a census report published once in five years, they will 
have figures of their own annually, on which to base 
their calculations. 

Already steps have been taken to secure the names 
of 33,000 manufacturers of lumber, and obtain annual 
reports from them, covering the three essential points, 
viz., the amount produced, the amount sent forward 
to the consumer, and the amount of stock on hand 
when annual inventories are taken. 

The importance and value of such statistics can be 



American Forest Congress 171 

illustrated by relating the experience of manufacturers 
of one kind of lumber, who for several years have made 
a systematic collection of figures. During a period 
of nine months stocks among 200 mills increased 
150,000,000 feet. 

These figures were obtained in two ways — by a 
record of the excess of cut over shipments, showing 
a steady increase each month, and a semi-annual in- 
ventory compared with the inventory of January ist. 
These statistics revealed a serious situation, and were 
the cause of an early meeting, at which it was decided 
that less lumber should be produced until the visible 
supply was reduced to normal amount. 

The argument is used by some that such conditions, 
as were revealed by the figures just quoted, should be 
allowed to correct themselves — let the disease run its 
course — but in these . days of growing scarcity of 
stumpage, with only one crop in sight, the majority 
believe that reliable statistics, showing a heavy accu- 
mulation of stock, should serve as a danger flag, and 
the speed of production be reduced until the rough 
part of the road has been passed. 

To continue production up to full capacity, when 
undisputed evidence is produced that a large surplus 
already exists, is unwise and unprofitable, and an un- 
necessary sacrifice of stumpage, which on account of 
our steady increase in population and consuming 
territory, is becoming more valuable every year. 

The importance attached to statistics in other com- 
modities is well illustrated by the annual report of the 
statistician for the Department of Agriculture, for the 
fiscal year 1903-1904, published in the December issue 
of the Crop Reporter. The fact that our Government 
has made the Census Bureau continuous in its organi- 
zation, and reduced the period of census returns from 



172 Proceedings o^ the 

one in ten to one in five years, is another evidence of 
the importance of up-to-date statistics. 

The steady growth of all lumber associations, having 
for their object systematic gathering and compiling 
of figures in the three circles, is the best proof of the 
importance of statistics, and when all manufacturers 
realize their bearing on the individual operation, and 
on the group of mills, and on the combined whole, 
some broad association now organized, or yet to be 
born, covering the entire industry, will be able to give 
what every producer is waiting for, correct statistics 
relative to production, consumption, and visible supply, 
which are the three factors governing values. 

These facts are of sufficient importance to warrant 
united and persistent effort to secure them. 

Such gatherings as this Congress, tend to hasten 
the day when the manufacturers of lumber, and owners 
of stumpage, will work closer together, and determine 
annually how rapidly our forest resources are dimin- 
ishing, and thus realize more and more the ''Importance 
of Statistics in the Lumber Industry." 



OPPORTUNITIES FOR LUMBERING IN 
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 

BY 

CAPTAIN GEORGE P. AHERN 

Chief Philippine Bureau of Forestry 

T N 1876 the Spanish officials estimated the forest area 
of the PhiHppines at 51,537,243 acres. In 1890 
Fernando Castro estimated it at 48,112,920 acres. 

The forests of these islands are unlike those usually 
found in temperate climes, in that no one species, 
except the genus pinus, is found in pure different 
stands. A stand containing forty species or more to 
the acre is not uncommon. Such forests are naturally 
cut by the so-called ''selection" system. The trees 
removed in selection cuttings are those from 24 to 40 
inches, thus leaving in the forest only young trees too 
small to cut, and over-mature trees, which are generally 
defective and which should have been the first ones 
removed, as the timber of the same becomes less 
valuable each year. The seeds of these old trees — 
the source of reproduction — generally do not repro- 
duce as vigorous seedlings as do seeds from trees in 
the prime of life. 

Under the native methods of lumbering, after the 
felling of the medium-sized trees of desirable classes, 
we generally find left on each acre a great number of 
trees which have very little present merchantable value. 
These present a serious difficulty in that these trees 
frequently bear a greater amount of seed, and at an 
earlier age than do trees of the better species. In mark- 
ing and selecting trees for felling, the forester attempts 



174 Proce:e:dings o^ the 

to avoid the above bad defects of cutting by insisting 
upon the removal of as much of the poorer grades as 
possible, and attempts to aid the reproduction of better 
species in every possible way. 

No complete survey of standing timber in the islands 
has ever been made. No record can be found of any 
such work having been attempted during the Spanish 
administration. Since the organization of the present 
Bureau, this work has been commenced in six prov- 
inces, in virgin forests as well as in regions that have 
been severely cut. At the same time, vigorous work 
is being done towards acquiring a knowledge of the 
forests everywhere in the islands. A large herbarium 
is being formed through the efforts of between 15 and 
20 botanists, collectors, and foresters. We find up- 
wards of 400 different tree species within a limited 
area; and it is estimated that from 1,200 to 1,500 
different tree species will be found in the islands. Be- 
tween 500 and 700 different tree species are brought 
into the market each year, of which about 40 are 
well known. A detailed study of these 40 species 
is being made, both by the botanists and foresters. 

An effort is being made to study many of the native 
woods that are not well known in the market, but 
which occur frequently, and which the foresters report 
are not popular with the native lumbermen. To study 
these woods, a factory has been started at Manila as 
part of the work of the Bureau of Forestry, where 
some 40 or more Filipino cabinet-makers and carpen- 
ters work under the supervision of three American 
expert cabinet-makers. In this way a number of 
woods have been worked up in various ways so as to 
show their utility and beauty. The work of this fac- 
tory is to be transferred to Bilibid prison, where 150 
or 200 men will be employed. Foresters and lumber- 



American Forest Congress 175 

men of each district are asked to send in samples of 
native woods which are found in large quantities, and 
which are not popular in the market, so that investiga- 
tion may bring out some further utility or beauty which 
would make them more popular. The articles made 
from these woods are sold, thus helping to defray the 
expense of this investigation ; at the same time a large 
number of Filipinos are being trained in the art of 
cabinet making. 

Of the 48,000,000 acres of woodland in the islands, 
there are at least 20,000,000 acres of virgin public 
forest. Valuation surveys by our foresters bring out 
the fact that in this virgin forest there is an average 
stand of 3,500 cubic feet of merchantable timber on 
each acre. It is safe to assume that there is at least 
1,500 cubic feet of timber on each acre which could 
be marketed at once, and probably much of the re- 
mainder, it will be found, can be used, after the 
investigation in our workshops is concluded. 

We find no merchantable timber, and but very little 
woodland, close to the centers of population. Thickly 
populated islands, like Cebu and Panay, are almost 
completely stripped of their timber; and in many of 
the other islands the good timber has been cut away 
for about five miles from the coast line. In other 
islands we find the virgin forest extending down to the 
water's edge. 

During the fiscal year 1904, about 50,000,000 feet 
B. M. of native timber were brought to market, 
while about 30,000,000 feet of timber were imported 
from the United States, Australia, and Borneo. Much 
more timber would be used in the islands if the price 
were a little lower. The lowest grade of lumber is 
now worth $35 to $40 per M. 

The forest wealth of the islands, especially in those 



176 Proceedings oe the 

parts where no operations have been carried on, is 
enormous. Large quantities of timber valuable for 
house and ship construction, cabinet woods, dyewoods, 
rubber, high grade of gutta percha, resins, and oils 
are found. 

The display of Philippine forest products at the 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, at St. Louis, Mo., was 
a revelation to the many visitors. None had realized 
the enormous quantities, size, and beauty of the native 
timber, and the great variety of other valuable forest 
products which the islands produce. 

Up to the present, logging has been carried on in the 
same locality for a great many years, no effort being 
made to operate a virgin forest even a day's journey 
from the settlements. This has been due largely to 
the fact that in former times there was very little 
protection to life and property. The Filipinos prefer 
to live in settlements and work within a few miles 
of them. 

Only one company in the islands has made prepara- 
tions to log with modern equipment, and is now 
operating in nothern Negros. The first 20-year ex- 
clusive timber license to operate over a large area was 
granted to this company in August, 1904. 

The question is often asked. How much of the forests 
of the islands are held by private owners? Of the 
48,000,000 acres of woodland, much less than i ,000,000 
acres are now in private hands. The forest law re- 
quires that all owners of private woodlands shall 
register their titles in the Bureau of Forestry before 
marketing the standing timber. If this timber is cut 
without registration of title, it is considered as taken 
from public land. Up to date, 132 estates, aggregat- 
ing in area 270,000 acres, are registered in the Bureau. 
All owners of private woodlands throughout the is- 



American Forest Congress 177 

lands have shown a desire to register their titles with 
the Bureau. The officials at our sixty forest stations 
throughout the islands keep a sharp supervision over 
the logging operations on private estates. The fear 
of confiscation of the land on account of non-payment 
of taxes, brings to the public notice the holders of all 
land in the islands. On account of the high prices 
of native timber during the past five years, all persons 
who claim any woodland have presented their titles 
for registration in the Bureau. But one large tract 
(50,000 acres), owned by the religious order known 
as the Recoletos, in the Island of Mindoro, has not 
been registered. 

The private woodlands throughout the islands have 
been pretty thoroughly cut over during the past five 
years, and are not nearly so well timbered as the public 
forests. 

The Bureau of Forestry has an office in Manila, 
which controls all operations in the forests, assisted 
by officials situated at the sixty forest stations scat- 
tered throughout the islands. These stations are so 
selected that the officials in charge of the district can 
readily supervise the operations of all persons gather- 
ing forest products. 

The forest laws and regulations of the islands are 
based on provisions of the act of Congress of July i, 
1902, entitled ''An Act temporarily to provide for the 
administration of the afifairs of civil government in 
the Philippine Islands, and for other purposes." Sec- 
tions 17 and 18 of said act provide as follows : 

''Sec. 17. That timber, trees, forests, and forest 
products on lands leased or demised by the government 
of the Philippine Islands under the provisions of this 
act shall not be cut, destroyed, removed, or appro- 
priated except by special permission of said govern- 
ment and under such refi:ulations as it may prescribe. 



178 Proceedings o^ the 

"All moneys obtained from lease or sale of any 
portion of the public domain or from licenses to cut 
timber by the government of the Philippine Islands 
shall be coverted into the insular treasury and be sub- 
ject only to appropriation for insular purposes accord- 
ing to law. 

"Sec. 18. That the forest laws and regulations now 
in force in the Philippine Islands, with such modifica- 
tions and amendments as may be made by the 
government of said islands, are hereby continued in 
force, and no timber lands forming part of the public 
domain shall be sold, leased, or entered until the 
government of said islands, upon the certification of 
the forestry bureau that said lands are more valuable 
for agriculture than for forest uses, shall declare such 
lands so certified to be agricultural in character: Pro- 
vided, That the said government shall have the right 
and is hereby empowered to issue licenses to cut, 
harvest, or collect timber or other forest products on 
reserved or unreserved public lands in said islands in 
accordance with the forest laws and regulations here- 
inbefore mentioned and under the provisions of this 
act, and the said government may lease land to any 
person or persons holding such licenses, sufficient for 
a mill site, not to exceed four hectares in extent, and 
may grant rights of way to enable such person or 
persons to get access to the lands to which such licenses 
apply." 

A forest act was promulgated by the Insular Civil 
Commission May 7, 1904; and by means of its wise 
provisions, a rational system of forest management 
can be inaugurated and the future welfare of the 
forests secured. It received careful scrutiny from 
legal minds connected with the law-enacting branch 
of the Civil Government with a view to protecting and 



American Forest Congress 179 

conserving the rights of the humblest Hcensee, while 
granting to lumber companies and heavy individual 
investors considerable latitude in timber operations. 

The visit of Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the U. S. 
Bureau of Forestry, to the Philippines, resulted in 
much benefit to the forest service, due to his assistance 
in preparing the present forest act. 

The forest regulations were amended to carry out 
the requirements in a forest act, and a forest manual 
containing both the forest act and forest regulations, 
indexed and annotated, with extracts from other laws 
bearing upon forest revenue or service, and some 
additional notes, were compiled and gratuitously dis- 
tributed to all forest officials and licensees. 

In the forest act, several important changes may be 
noted, which it is confidently hoped will give an 
impetus to forest development. Not the least of these 
is the reduction of tariff on forest products from 
about 60 to 35 per cent. ; the reclassification of native 
woods into four groups; the adoption of the metric 
system of weights and measures in conformity with the 
revised U. S. statutes and similar action on the part 
of most advanced countries; the division of the prov- 
inces into two classes, A and B, and granting of licenses 
for a period, within the discretion of the Secretary of 
the Interior and the Chief of the Bureau, not to exceed 
20 years. 

The liberality of these provisions may be seen at a 
glance, especially the first and last. In dividing the 
provinces, encouragement to licensees has governed 
action. The provinces in Class B are those in which 
it is desirable that the larger timber operations be 
carried on, and provision is also made for exclusive 
licenses, where the party at interest will have sole 
privilege of gathering a certain forest product on the 
area of public forest designated. 



i8o Proce:edings 01^ the: 

It is cause for congratulation that at every step the 
Civil Commission has been in thorough sympathy with 
a rational forest policy. This is further shown by the 
public land act (926), which provides that public wood- 
lands shall not be entered, sold, or leased until a certi- 
ficate is received from the Bureau of Forestry that the 
land is more valuable for agricultural than for forest 
purposes. The removal of valuable timber from leased 
land is also subject to the regulations of this Bureau. 

In order to take forest products from public lands, 
a person should make application to the nearest forest 
station for a license. If the license is for a small 
amount, the same may be granted by the local forest 
officer; if for a large amount, the application is for- 
warded to the Manila office, with remarks by the local 
forest officer. These licenses are usually granted in 
July of each year, and are usually for a period of one 
year. In cases where a company may desire to operate 
on a large area, a license agreement may be entered 
into for a period not to exceed 20 years, whereby the 
company secures an exclusive privilege to operate over 
the territory desired for the period stated. Before 
entering into this agreement, the officials of the Bureau 
make a careful examination of the territory desired, 
noting the character of the forest, facilities for logging, 
proximity of settlements, and also report just what 
logging operations are being conducted in this vicinity 
by the local residents. The officials of the Bureau will 
cooperate with representatives of any company desir- 
ing to secure data concerning the amount and value of 
forest products in any particular region where opera- 
tions are contemplated. No charge is made by the 
Bureau for the examination, nor for the license 
granted. 

The charges are made on the timber after felling. 



Amejrican Forkst Congre:ss i8i 

The charges vary with the class of the wood and 
with the locaHty. In certain provinces, where the 
Government wishes to encourage logging operations, 
the stumpage charges vary from 75 cents to $3.75, 
gold, per M feet, B. M., and in other provinces the 
charges vary from $1.50 to $7.50 per M feet, B. M. 
In any locality of the islands, where a forester selects 
timber for felling, the lower prices will be charged. 

During the fiscal year 1903-4, the following number 
of licenses were granted by the Bureau of Forestry : 

Timber, 1,327; gratuitous, 905; firewood, 723; by- 
products, 355. The timber licenses mentioned in- 
cluded 19 licenses granted companies. The total 
amount cut by these companies during the year was 
640,327 cubic feet, an average of 24,228 cubic feet. 
The largest amount cut by one company was 95,016 
cubic feet. The small amount cut may be accounted 
for when one realizes the primitive logging methods 
followed. 

Much has been said for and against the Filipino as. 
a laborer. When one is well acquainted with the 
native it is not difficult to learn the true inwardness 
of the difficulties of the labor problem. 

In the first place the Filipino is apt, will do good 
work when supervised, and as a rule will continue to 
work if he is treated with some consideration. 

The personal relations between the white supervisor 
and the native have much to do with the case. The 
native is accustomed to certain things that are simple 
and inexpensive but very necessary to him. He likes 
to have his family and fighting cock near him — he is 
fond of music, of his church, and of his people; in 
fact, he is fond of social pleasures and will work hard 
if he sees pleasure ahead. In the islands there have 
been a number of instances where we have employed 



i82 Procke:dings of the: 

several thousand natives under one management and 
where every consideration was shown them, and the 
results have been most gratifying. At the rock quar- 
ries near Mariveles, the workmen have their families 
with them; they are provided with horses, good food, 
and are treated justly and given their wages when 
due. The Depot Quartermaster of the Army in 
Manila employs between one and two thousand natives 
and reports very favorably on the work done. The 
engineers building the electric tramway in Manila 
report that the cost of laying each hundred feet of track 
in Manila averages less in cost than elsewhere; that 
the work is done well and that the labor is very satis- 
factory; and that there is not the slightest difficulty 
encountered in keeping the men to their work. The 
record made for coaling ships in Manila Bay made by 
the native Filipino was better than that of the Chinese 
or others employed in a similar capacity in the Bay. 

The native Filipino will learn modern logging meth- 
ods very quickly and well; he is keen at handling 
machinery, but needs some one to look over his work 
occasionally. The wage paid is of little consideration 
with the native. He may work for one man at 25 
cents a day and refuse to work for another at $1 a day. 
His employer may owe him several weeks' wages, but 
if the native is treated unjustly and his feelings are 
injured, he may disappear and say nothing about the 
wages due. If a company contemplates operations 
on a large scale, the difficulty of securing a sufficient 
number of laborers will be minimized by starting in 
well. Give each family a small native house ; bamboo 
is cheap. They should have their church, assembly 
hall, cockpit, and music, all of which can be secured at 
small expense. 

The market for Philippine timber at present is 



American Fori:st Congri^ss 183 

Manila — a few cargoes are shipped to Hong Kong and 
Singapore. The war in the islands caused great de- 
struction to property — the country people have lost 
their money and stock, their homes have been de- 
stroyed, the roads and bridges ruined, and now that 
an effort is being made to rebuild, there is but little 
money to pay for it; the people, the municipal and 
provincial governments are poor. Steady progress 
towards reconstruction is being made, however, and 
native timber is much used. 

The Philippine timber is popular in the China mar- 
ket. All of lowland China is without timber and much 
is imported. Manila is nearer to China than any other 
country furnishing timber, and should in time furnish 
all of the construction and finer wood needed. A good 
market for cabinet wood should be found also in 
Australia, Japan, and the United States. The cost at 
the mill of native manufactured lumber should average 
less than $15 per thousand, board measure. 

The lower grade woods should then be sold at a 
fair profit and the higher grade woods at a much larger 
profit. 

The legislation now requested of Congress looking 
towards railroad development in the islands, allowing 
municipalities to incur a certain amount of bonded 
indebtedness and reduction of the tariff will, if enacted, 
be followed by an era of railroad construction, munici- 
pal and provincial improvements, which means an in- 
creased demand for native woods. China is building 
railroads and yearly increasing its demand for timber. 
The Philippine market should take at least 100 million 
feet of timber per year. Hong Kong, Shanghai, and 
Singapore should each take at least as much. 

The average prices of timber per cubic foot and M., 
B. M., are, in Manila, as follows : 



i84 Proc^e:dings of the 

In the log, Sawed lumber, 

Class. per cu. ft. per M. B. M. 

U. S. Cur. U. S. Cur. 

Ipil $0.50 $141.25 

Molave 48 162.50 

Narra 47 128.15 

Tindalo 50 14375 

Yacal 40 III. 15 

Calantas 31 156.50 

Dungon 40 100.00 

Acle 37 85.00 

Guijo 31 80.00 

Palo Maria 31 80.00 

Apitong 31 60.00 

Lauan 20 48.50 

Supa 28 81.50 

Pasac 31 81.50 

Betis 56 94.00 

Toog 18 62.50 

Batino 16 75.00 

Price;s Quoted in Manila Newspapers: 

Class. PerM.B.M.,U.S.Cur. 

Molave . ; $160.00 

Narra, R 150.00 

Narra, Wh 120.00 

Yacal 125.00 

Ipil 125.00 

Guijo 70.00 

Supa 90.00 

Lauan 37.50 

Apitong 45-00 

Oregon pine $40.00 to $51.00 

Redwood $47-50 to $71.00 

Hemlock $40.00 and $41.00 

There are 3 good steam saw mills in Manila and one 
in northern Negros; a few smaller mills are in the 



American Forest Congress 185 

provinces. The mills can saw all of the logs brought 
to market. The great difficulty is to get the logs. The 
system of logging must change, modern methods must 
be used, the donkey engine, wire cable, portable rail- 
ways, and modern methods of rafting, loading, and 
unloading lumber vessels, all must be employed. 
Americans familiar with such work must be employed, 
and under their instruction a competent force of capa- 
ble Filipinos may be trained who will learn quickly and 
will do a large part of the work required. 

The Philippine Government is provided with just 
and efficient courts. A new judicial system has been 
inaugurated which gives satisfaction to all. Business 
men in the islands have a feeling of confidence in the 
courts which must be very gratifying to the Philippine 
Government. The Supreme Court is composed of 
seven judges, four Americans and three Filipinos, and 
all have been carefully selected for fitness and integrity. 
In cases involving $25,000 or more, appeal may be 
made to the Supreme Court of the United States. All 
cases before the courts are tried promptly and the 
record of these courts would be a credit to any of our 
States. A system of registration of land titles has been 
adopted similar to that known as the Torrens system. 
The land court upon sufficient proof gives a title which 
is guaranteed by the Government. Purchases of land 
may now be made with the proviso that the seller 
secures a title from the land court. 

The gold standard has been adopted for the islands 
so that the fluctuations in the currency so common 
in the Orient is done away with in the Philippines. 
There is and always has been since the American occu- 
pation, a surplus in the Philippine treasury. 

The income to be derived from the new system of 
internal revenue is expected to more than meet any 



i86 Proceedings o? the 

change in revenue from customs duties should the 
present tariff rate between the islands on the United 
States be reduced. 

Ever since the American occupation of the islands 
attempts have been made by private capital to develop 
the lumber industry. Immediate success has not fol- 
lowed these efforts. In many cases sufficient capital 
was not invested; in other cases men failed through 
lack of experience in the business. 

There is a vast natural forest wealth awaiting devel- 
opment, but its development requires wise management, 
money and time. This archipelago is the one undevel- 
oped fertile spot in the Orient. The market for our 
products is strong and close at hand. Labor is not 
very difficult to secure, and ample protection is secured 
to life and property. The virgin forests have not been 
developed for this very lack of protection. Any com- 
pany desiring to investigate the forest resources of the 
islands will find the officials of the Bureau of Forestry 
ready to cooperate in furnishing information, both in 
the office and in the field. There are a number of very 
inviting fields of forest development in the islands 
which should prove attractive to those who believe in 
the future of our possessions in the Orient. The fol- 
lowing regions offer special attractions: 

The Island of Mindoro, the east coast of Luzon, 
the Cagayan Valley, the Islands of Negros and Leyte. 
The greater the distance from Manila, the base of sup- 
plies, the less the chances for success. A company 
entering the Philippine field should go prepared to 
carry on some agricultural work in addition to logging ; 
it should also be equipped with a modern saw mill, a 
complete system of water transportation so as to supply 
the island and China markets ; it should have a lumber 
yard in Manila as well as in each China port. A well 



American Forest Congress 187 

laid out town should be started for the employees. 
This scheme of exploitation can be started with a capi- 
tal of half a million dollars. A tract of between 100 
and 200 square miles of virgin public forest may be 
secured for 20 years, and when secured a selection of 
the best sites for agricultural development should be 
marked out. Land may be purchased by the company 
and also by the employees, or may be taken up by 
them as homesteads. Philippine hemp and copra com- 
mand a high price all over the world, are easily raised, 
and on virgin soil should produce good results within 
a few years. 

The Philippines are centrally located and close to 
markets with a trade of more than 100 million dollars 
per month ; a trade that is constantly growing and that 
should be of great value to the islands. We have 
valuable and vast quantities of hardwoods; we have 
hemp, copra, sugar, and tobacco that 450 million people 
want. Manila will have next year the best harbor and 
docks in the Orient, and the facilities for loading and 
unloading large ocean steamers will make this port a 
great depot of supply for this part of the world. It 
seems strange that so many people should be uncon- 
scious of the great future of the trade in the Orient. 
China is awakening and will not cease its stride in 
commercial development. Japan will in the near fu- 
ture be a powerful factor in this development and will 
look to the United States for cooperation. 

The Pacific is indeed an American ocean; we have 
the choice islands in the great sea, we have the most 
fertile spot at the gates of China. This spot is peopled 
by a bright, ambitious, and happy race, a race that is 
susceptible of great development. The Philippines 
need Americans with a keen sense of right and justice, 
with brains and money, the American coming to the 



i88 Proce:e:dings oi^ the 

islands should realize that it is the country of the 
Filipinos, he should treat the native with consideration 
and the ready response of the native will be more than 
gratifying. Business will succeed in the islands if the 
native is with you. 



THE LUMBER DEALERS' INTEREST IN 
FOREST PRESERVATION 

BY 

GEORGE W. HOTCHKISS 

Lumber Secretary's Bureau of Information 

TTHH very interesting papers to which we have 
Hstened this morning may well give me some 
excuse, in the lateness of the hour, for cutting my 
remarks short, and I request the chairman to call me 
down in ten minutes at the outside. Representing the 
retail lumbermen of twenty-four States which were 
gathered in the early part of December, and about 
40,000 retail lumbermen, I come to you to bring their 
greetings and to say something about the interests of 
the retail lumber trade in connection with the preser- 
vation of the forest. In order to arrive at an adequate 
realization of the interests of the retail lumberman, 
which means the interests of the nation at large, it is 
necessary to take a hasty glance at the progress of the 
lumber business. 

The first saw mill in this country was built in 1643 
in the forests of Vermont. In 1763 we began to 
import lumber from Canada, and we have custom 
house figures to show that 623 feet were brought to 
Oswego in that year. The center of the lumber trade 
progressed west to the straits of Mackinac, and the 
island of Mackinac was for a time the center of the 
industry; from that point to the St. Clair River and 
to the Saginaw River and to Lake Michigan points in 
Michigan and in Wisconsin, with several different 
points of production. In the early settlement of Mich- 



190 Proceedings oe the 

igan we begin to find mills on the St. Clair. They 
throve in the '30s, increased and with the settlement 
of the country the lumber industry of the State spread 
until it covered the entire State. At about the same 
time there were a few mills on the shore of Lake 
Michigan in Wisconsin and on the Wisconsin River. 
In 1830 the city of Chicago received its lumber by ox 
team from the Alleghany Mountains. The consump- 
tion of lumber in 1883 was 2,225,000,000 feet — a con- 
trast with the load brought by the ox team in 1830. 
In 1852 I went to Canada, returning from California, 
and began the manufacture of lumber on the north 
shore of Lake Erie. Here a strip from Port Hope on 
the east to Port Stanley on the west represented the 
area of lumber operations. In 1862 I went to Saginaw, 
remaining there seventeen years. In those year, speak- 
of values, I bought lumber which ran 75 per cent, 
upper for $14 a thousand feet. Those uppers to-day, 
were they still to be had, would be worth $85 to $100 
in Chicago. This is the increase in value. In 
1870 in connection with Henry S. Dow I became the 
original lumber journalist of the country, and from 
that time I have been greatly interested in statistics of 
production. I have often found great difficulty in ob- 
taining reports of statistics of manufacture, but we 
have so perfected the system of statistics as to have 
arrived at a fair knowledge of the production of the 
country. In 1870 and thereabouts, after many experi- 
ments confined wholly to pine — for in those days the 
lumberman knew nothing about any lumber except 
pine — it was determined that the consumption averaged 
500 feet per capita. Some put it at 494 feet, some at- 
510, in the several years during which these figures 
were compiled. The per capita consumption to-day 
is not less than 750 feet, including all varieties of tim- 



American Forest Congrejss 191 

ber. We are using trees that we used to think worth- 
less. We are sawing everything that will make a 
board and some that will not, and as Mr. Defebaugh 
has said, you will find 4x4s with bark on all four 
corners. As was a common expression in the days of 
the war, we are "robbing the cradle as well as the 
grave." We are paying no respect to age or value of 
timber, but are cutting it down and getting rid of it. 

The consumption to-day may fairly be estimated at 
from 46,ooo,cxx),ooo to 50,000,000,000 feet of timber 
annually. I remember a young man with grand pros- 
pects for lumber manufacture who told me he had 
secured an option on 360 acres and wanted to build a 
mill on it and asked me for my advice as to how to 
make $25,000 profit. I told him that that amount of 
timber would be just a good week's bite for some of 
the modern saw mills and that the mill would never 
be paid for by the profits. A great many people have 
the same inability to understand big figures and the 
immensity of the lumber business, but when I tell you 
that the consumption of lumber during a single day 
is something like 13,000,000 to 15,000,000 feet you will 
perhaps get some appreciation of the vastness of the 
lumber trade. It is claimed by Government authorities 
that the lumber industry is the fourth in extent. I 
claim it to be the first. I claim the value of the vast 
industry has given us one-fourth to one-third of the 
financial value of the country. Our financial interests 
are computed at $96,000,000,000. I believe the forests 
have given us from $25,000,000,000 to $30,000,000,000 
of that amount, and where is one other industry that 
exceeds it ? So little is understood of the value of the 
lumber trade that I must give you one little illustration : 
The product of the California gold field I have watched 
with interest, having been a forty-niner. Our produc- 



192 PR0CE:e:dINGS 01^ THK 

tion of gold in California from 1848 to 1890 was 
$1,348,000,000. The lumber trade of the nation for 
1890 was $1,135,000,000, lacking but $200,000,000 of 
the entire volume of gold produced in California, which 
has been the gold mine of the world during all these 
fifty years. Let me give another illustration. All the 
products of the soil, including oil, gold and iron — 
everything of that kind — in 1895 was $540,000,000, with 
a wheat crop of $400,000,000. There you have a total 
of $940,000,000 for the products of the soil against 
$1,135,000,000 for the products of the forests. I claim 
that lumber is the productive factor in the wealth of 
the nation. 

Up to about 1870 the lumber business was transacted 
by the manufacturer and the wholesaler at leading deep 
water centers, and by but few retail yards. When I 
took my first clerkship in New Haven, Conn., in 1874, our 
lumber supplies came from Maine and afterwards from 
Albany and the Susquehanna at Fort Deposit. Then 
a part of the manufacturers drifted west, and in 1852 
purchased timber and manufactured it in the southern 
part of Canada. Gradually the production has ex- 
tended westward. We had originally in Michigan not 
fewer than 300,000,000,000 feet of white pine, of which 
we had cut 165,000,000,000 feet up to 1897, with less 
than two billion feet left in that year by reason of 
forest fires and other destructive influences. The total 
production in the northwest to 1897, in Michigan 
Wisconsin and Minnesota, was 333,000,000,000 feet. 
These are figures that are representative of the immen- 
sity of the lumber business. This is a billion dollar 
country as far as its finances are concerned. It is 
much more than a billion foot country to the lumber- 
men. This lumber has been utilized by the railroads 
and we have built the nation from the forests of the 



American Forest Congress 193 

North. My time has expired and I have no time to 
exploit the forests of Pennsylvania and the West, but 
could I do so, I think I could fully demonstrate that 
we are a lumber consuming people and strengthen any 
impression you may have formed of the importance of 
the trade. 



A' 



COOPERAGE AND ITS RELATION TO 
FORESTY 

BY 

JOHN A. McCANN 

Editor National Coopers' Journal 

S a preliminary measure of enlightenment and to 
illustrate the attitude of my cooperage friends as 
they relate to the subject of improved forest condi- 
tions, I may say without fear of contradiction that the 
writer of that beautiful poem, "Woodman, spare that 
tree," has never been a very popular personage in 
cooperage circles. Indeed, I think it will be very 
generally conceded, even by manufacturers of coop- 
erage stock themselves, that no class of timber work- 
ers have been more indefatigable and painstaking in 
their efforts to make the work of the American For- 
estry Association and the Bureau of Forestry a prime 
and pressing necessity than have those amongst whom 
it has been my pleasant and, more or less, profitable 
privilege to labor for many years. 

This being the case, it would seen to require a rare 
and rather robust quality of courage for one who has 
for twenty years conducted a cooperage paper to come 
here for the purpose of offering congratulations on 
the fact that in future we are likely to have intelligent 
and scientific efforts to prevent the enthusiastic labors 
of those who seem bent on leaving nothing of our 
American forests but a memory. That I am here for 
that very purpose, however, would seem to indicate 
that I have that able-bodied quality of courage with 
me, but as a plea in extenuation or avoidance, which- 



Amkrican F'or^st Congre:ss 195 

ever is preferred, I will say that I come primed and 
fortified with the belief that 

"Long as the light holds out to burn, 
The vilest sinner may return." 

And in this particular direction we cooperage people 
have sinned atrociously. 

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I shall not follow my 
journalistic associate of the American Lumberman, 
Mr. Defebaugh, in the erection of any pedestals on 
which to place cooperage people. I shall not follow 
him in picturing my cooperage friends as natural and 
patriotic conservators of our forest areas. I shall 
not deny that we have been wasteful, nor shall I seek 
to defend that wastefulness, nor shall I discuss the ques- 
tion of man's right to do with his own just w^hat he sees 
fit. I come simply to lay our symptoms, as I see them, 
before Dr. Wilson, Chief Surgeon Pinchot, and their 
assistants, with the hope that they can successfully 
prescribe for our ailments. It is only the sick that 
require a physician, and on that hypothesis I fail to 
see why Editor Defebaugh, as the representative of 
those well-behaved and immaculate lumbermen, came 
here at all. 

We cooperage people make no claims of that kind. 
We have been wasteful, and as though in pursuit of 
the most lofty ambition, we have for years gone at the 
destruction of at least two of the noblest specimens of 
the American forest, the white oak and the American 
elm, and followed them so relentlessly, that the ends 
of both are well in sight, unless the American Forestry 
Association or Bureau of Forestry will stay the hand 
of the stave man, do something to repair his wasteful- 
ness, or satisfy his rapacity with other woods of which 
a greater abundance is obtainable. 



196 Proc^e:dings of th^ 

It may be news to many of those within the sound 
of my voice that grades of white oak, which are wel- 
comed by the furniture factories of Grand Rapids and 
elsewhere for furniture making, would be rejected 
by the maker of the whiskey barrel, and that 
elm, suitable for the interior finish of a luxurious 
home, would not always do for a Minneapolis flour 
barrel. We of the cooperage fraternity are both 
finicky and fastidious; but it is earnestly to be hoped 
that under the operation and influence of this Associa- 
tion the Bureau of Forestry, or the legislation which 
will follow their joint recommendations, some of this 
fastidiousness may be taken out of us. 

As far back as I have any knowledge, white oak has 
been, and it is to-day, the chief dependence of the 
tight barrel cooper. I mean those who manufacture 
barrels for whiskey, wine, oil, alcohol, turpentine, and 
other liquids. All of these seem to demand and require 
white oak of the finest grade, and the part of the tree 
zvhich they deem fit for their purpose is its least part. 

The greater part, up to recent years, has been thrown 
aside to rot and breed a very destructive species of 
worm, or else has been thrown into heaps and burned. 
I feel that I am well within the bounds of truth and 
reason when I say that if all the white oak which has 
been wasted during the past fifty years could have been 
saved and sold at its present value, it would have been 
enough to pay for the Panama Canal, or possibly pay 
off the national debt. 

There are other woods used by the tight-barrel 
maker for such semi-liquid products as syrup, glucose, 
lard, pork, etc., and these woods include cypress, red 
oak, and latterly, red gum. Chestnut has never been 
made much use of in this country, although it is used 
extensively for olive oils in Italy, as well as in the wine 



American Forest Congress 197 

districts of France and Germany. The American 
family of chestnuts is a large one, and if it could be 
demonstrated that some of the varieties are available 
for tight-barrel work, it would have an excellent effect 
in restricting the demand for oak, the supply of which 
— in any considerable bodies — is now confined to Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas. The avail- 
ability of tupelo or red gum for tight-barrel purposes, 
is another work which the Bureau of Forestry could 
undertake advantageously, as from a recent bulletin 
issued by the department, it is learned that in the 
district south of the Ohio River and east of the Texas 
line, red gum stumpage alone equals that of all other 
hardwoods combined. 

In seeking to prepare myself to point out for this 
Association and the Bureau of Forestry where either 
or both can possibly be of use to the industry which 
constitutes my field of labor, I have called upon some 
of the manufacturers of cooperage stock for their views 
on this subject, and one of these, who is a close student 
of forest conditions, and particularly well fitted by 
nature and education to speak intelligently of cooper- 
age needs from the standpoint of forestry, says that the 
cooperage people who own timber, and timber owners 
generally, should be educated to their necessities in 
three ways: 

First. The need of an intelligent appreciation of the 
value of timber. 

Second. The need of caring for the timber from a 
physical standpoint. 

Third. The manner in which to accomplish these 
ends. 

To begin with, the first subject means to teach the 
public an intelligent appreciation of the value of timber. 
It is an old maxim that "Wilful waste makes woeful 



198 Proc^e:dings 0^ the: 

want." Timber owners should know the value of their 
holdings, and in the event that they do not want to 
make use of them themselves, and do not want them to 
come into the hands of their neighbors, then the obliga- 
tion which rests on every good citizen should not be 
overlooked, and that is, the sacred duty of caring for 
material things which are to pass on down to posterity. 

Taking the physical view of the matter with refer- 
ence to the cooperage business, it has come under my 
observation, says my correspondent, that each year 
white oak for cooperage stock is becoming scarcer, and 
the quality of the oak is deteriorating. Worms in the 
timber are becoming more destructive and working in 
new localities, and in this connection I would add that 
worms do more serious damage to white oak, so far 
as cooperage is concerned, than they do to any other 
kind of timber. 

It seems that the great quantity of waste timber 
allowed to lie in the woods and decay accounts, to a 
great extent, for the increase of worms in recent years, 
as this decaying timber not only feeds the worms, but 
breeds them as well. 

Another destructive force that I want to speak of, 
which has destroyed many million feet of fine forest, 
is the annual fires that we have in the different timber 
belts. These fires not only kill the small timber out- 
right, but the larger trees are blasted, and as soon as 
they begin to decay the worms entirely destroy the 
tree. The need of protection against both of these 
destructive forces can easily be seen ; indeed, the way 
was well pointed out yesterday by an Ontario delegate ; 
and this brings us to the third subject: "How to 
Accomplish These Ends." 

In this connection I am greatly interested in the 
matter of forest reservations to be purchased and 



American Forest Congress 199 

owned by the Government. I would like to see our 
Government own large boundaries of timber lands in 
different sections of our country, and to give these for- 
ests such care and attention as would demonstrate that 
to give care and attention to standing timber will prove 
as great a source of revenue as any other line of en- 
deavor of which demonstration can be made. Let the 
Association and the Bureau of Forestry acquaint the 
public with the fact that each year timber is becoming 
more valuable, and should have their attention in the 
way of protection against the two destructive forces, 
viz., forest fires and worms. Let the Government 
make practical tests and demonstrations in their own 
forests by piling up the great quantity of waste timber 
and by cutting down and burning decaying timber, 
thus destroying the germs of the worms as well as the 
worms themselves; and the other object in cleaning the 
forest of this waste matter is to put safeguards around 
to prevent forest fires. 

Another large exporter of cooperage stock and lum- 
ber suggests that laws similar to those which now 
exist in France and Germany, where replanting would 
be practically compulsory, should be put on our statute 
books. He believes that it is only a question of time 
when it will be rendered necessary, by conditions, for 
the United States Government to insist on replanting, 
where owners cut over timber, and practically to adopt 
the French and German law, or practically the same 
forest laws that exist all over Continental Europe and 
which are, undoubtedly, well known to the Bureau of 
Forestry. 

Another believes that it would be a great advantage 
to the country at large if forests of elm {elmus Ameri- 
cana) and Cottonwood {populus monilifera or popuhis 
balsamfero or balm of Gilead) were planted under 



200 Procee^dings 01^ the: 

governmental auspices. These species grow very rap- 
idly, provided they are planted in low, wet land; and 
there is an abundance of such land that would grow 
forests of this class of timber, if properly planted and 
protected from fire, thereby utilizing, to the best ad- 
vantage, land that is practically worthless for other 
purposes. All other classes of deciduous woods (ex- 
cepting the white or burr oak species) which are now 
used to considerable extent for cooperage, can be 
grown on hillsides and other lands which are not 
valuable for agricultural purposes. 

Some of my cooperage friends are of the opinion 
that the time has passed when this Association, the 
Government or its Bureau of Forestry, can renier 
any practical service in this direction. A very large 
operator in Michigan writes as follows: "I know of 
nothing that the Government can do, except to encour- 
age reforestation as much as possible, as I believe the 
Government owns practically no timber lands on which 
cooperage material is now growing, and as the timbers 
used for cooperage material are now in the hands of 
private holders, the question of handling this class of 
forest products in a more economical way, with less 
waste, is entirely beyond the jurisdiction or dictation, 
in any way, of the general Government. 

"There is a great deal of wasteful extravagane, 
especially in the South at the present time, in the way 
of not taking out of the timber tracts all of the timber 
that might be used, which wastefulness is, in a large 
degree, practiced on account of the low stumpage cost 
at which most of these properties were acquired. 

''The question of reforestation of the kinds of timber 
used for cooperage material is a large one, and it is 
going to take a great deal of time. These kinds of 
timber grow much less rapidly than pine, and many 



Ame:rican Forest Congri^ss 201 

of the other timbers that are used so largely for gen- 
eral building and manufacturing purposes. 

"It occurs to me that really one of the chief things 
in connection with this question is to discourage the 
useless waste of the kind of material used for cooper- 
age. Any subject of this kind naturally concerns al- 
most entirely the private holder of stumpage, and is 
therefore beyond anything the general Government 
could do, except to make suggetsions. The principal 
manufacturers, possibly, would not be interested in 
even any such suggestion as this to the general Govern- 
ment, from the fact that for some time past it has been 
apparent to them that the time was speedily coming 
when material suitable for cooperage is going to be- 
come quite scarce, consequently more valuable. Hence 
they are willing to let those who are so disposed be as 
wasteful of such timber as they please. Of course this 
is a very selfish view, but selfishness travels hand-in- 
hand with the commercialism which seems to have 
possession of us at present, to an extent not believed 
possible in the days of our forefathers and the blessed 
era of 'The Simple Life.' " 

Another correspondent, who is a large manufacturer 
of staves in Arkansas and Louisiana, and who is also 
a close student of all matters pertaining to his craft, 
writes as follows: 

"In my opinion, little can be done by the Bureau of 
Forestry that will benefit the cooperage manufacturers 
in business to-day. The subject of reforestation is, 
and has always been, an interesting one, and I am glad 
to note that it is being taken in hand, and that the peo- 
ple have at last awakened to the necessity of taking 
some steps toward insuring the supply of timber for 
use in future years. Experts claim that it takes an oak 
from 80 to 100 years to arrive at its maturity, or its 



202 Proc^e:dings o^ th^ 

prime, rather; and from this age up to 400 and 500 
years is about the ages of trees that are usually con- 
sumed in cooperage. You will readily see from this 
that unless the present timber supply is very much 
greater than most of us admit it to be, that the supply 
in sight at the present time will be exhausted long 
before any new supply could possibly come in. To 
advocate trying to curtail the cutting, to my mind, 
would be altogether futile, as there is hardly an acre of 
virgin oak timber to be found in the county anywhere 
to-day. True there are some considerable tracts which 
are usually called virgin timber, but the fact of the 
matter is that nearly every acre has been cut over to 
some extent, and in some cases so long ago that the 
signs of the original stumps have disappeared. 

"There is no doubt but what the cooperage manu- 
facturers have been the worst timber butchers who 
have ever visited the hardwood forests of any country. 
In some places we find tracks of the destructive methods 
that prevailed many years ago, of cutting only the 
choicest trees to be found, and making them into very 
large staves for export, using nothing but the very 
choicest part of the tree, and only the choicest trees in 
the forest at that time. This is still being carried on, 
to some extent, and I have in hand a letter advising 
me that the Louisiana Commission has ordered an 
especially low rate on logs and heavy staves for export 
(that is pipe and cask staves), overlooking the fact 
that by so doing they are just contributing to the 
denudition of the better parts of the forests, and 
causing them to disappear much quicker than they 
would otherwise, leaving a large portion, which the 
average stave manufacturer of to-day would class as 
first-class material, to decay in the woods. As to what 
would be of benefit to the stave manufacturers: we 



Ame:rican Forest Congress 203 

think that some restriction or some kind of embargo 
thrown around this rough, unfinished product going 
abroad would be of some value in the way of preserv- 
ing the forests as well as assisting the cooperage 
manufacturers of to-day in the pursuit of their lawful 
business. 

"Reforestation will have to be conducted under the 
supervision and at the expense of the general govern- 
ment, if done to any valuable extent. Any other 
scheme will fall short of its mark, and in my opinion 
the best way to get at that would be for the Bureau of 
Forestry to secure tracts of land known to be suitable 
for the growing of oak timber and no other hardwoods. 
Buy or secure tracts of reasonable size, go over and 
replant a considerable area, under the charge of an 
expert forester. This would be somewhat of a kinder- 
garten, and would encourage the planting and culture 
of timber by individuals, and improving lands that 
had already been cut over and otherwise practically 
valueless. The remission of taxes by the states and 
the bonuses by the Government in view of planting and 
cultivating trees in certain countries, would materially 
assist in the reforestation of tracts that would otherwise 
be long left barren. It is a fact that the best oak lands 
are being rapidly put into cultivation for corn, cotton, 
and other products of that nature, and the uplands of 
hill lands, formerly so productive, have been turned 
into valuable farms, and are consequently of more 
value to the owner than the timber proposition. 

"As a rule, the stave manufacturers of the country 
have not been buyers of timber until recent years, 
except as stumpage, and consequently they have had 
no interest in the preservation of the forests and want 
to get only what is suitable for their purpose. 

"As there is only a comparatively small territory in 



204 Proce:e:dings o^ tut 

which oak timber now grows — that is, in the Southern 
States and the eastern part of Texas — and seeing that 
it has been reduced to so small an area, it is undoubt- 
edly very important and necessary to the welfare of 
the country in general, and the industry that we are 
engaged in particularly, that the scheme of reforesting 
this section on comprehensible and intelligent lines be 
instituted as early as possible." 

What I have touched upon thus far relates most 
closely to the tight-barrel feature of the cooperage 
business, which is really the least important branch of 
the industry, in volume, if not in dollars. The slack- 
barrel department comprises the manufacture of barrels 
to contain loose or dry products, such as flour, sugar, 
cement, lime, fruit, truck, and other things far too 
numerous to mention. It is to this branch of the 
cooperage industry that we must charge the annihila- 
tion and destruction of our elm forests. Their hand 
is stayed in that direction at present, to some extent, 
simply because there are now no forests of elm to 
conquer, and all of this havoc has been wrought in 
about twenty-five years. Up to that time the slack- 
barrel people were at work on a contract to destroy all 
the red oak in the country, as at that time oak was the 
chief timber used in slack packages, especially for flour 
and sugar. Owners of elm timber, purchased for a 
song, taking advantage of the advancing market for 
oak, sought to prove to the barrel men that elm was, 
at least, as good as oak for their purpose, but the 
innovation was looked upon with little patience. 
Finally, however, it was proven conclusively that elm 
was a better timber for this purpose than oak, and for 
twenty years and upwards it has been practically the 
only timber used for slack-barrel staves and hoops. 
The supply, however, is about exhausted, and now the 



American Forest Congress 205 

enterprising owners of gum timber tracts, bought as 
cheaply as elm was twenty years ago, are trying to 
persuade the cooper to forsake elm and accept gum, 
and in this praiseworthy undertaking the Bureau of 
Forestry can render efficient aid by demonstrating how 
gum may be most effectively utilized, and wastefulness 
discouraged ; and now is the time that this work should 
be undertaken. One of my contemporaries says that 
"it is the traditional policy of consumers of lumber and 
timber to ignore the possibility of the exhaustion of the 
timber supply, and invariably they fail to realize that 
fact until it has actually taken place." That suggestion 
fits my cooperage friends exactly. Twenty-five years 
ago elm and oak were as plentiful in the Northern 
States as gum and oak are in the Southern States now, 
and while that condition exists the campaign looking 
to conservation of the supply should be entered upon 
vigorously and determinedly, while the campaign for 
reforestation of the denuded lands of the North should 
also be organized and pressed with earnestness. 

With all the pessimistic sentiment surrounding this 
question of depleted timber supply, however, there 
comes to me one ray of light, and this leads me to the 
belief that the situation may not be quite as black as it 
is painted. Looking back into the files of my paper 
of eighteen and twenty years ago, I note news items 
in which it is stated that this manufacturer of staves 
and that manufacturer of heading, located in portions 
of Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio, "are 
seeking new locations, because the timber supply is 
exhausted." The strange part of it is, in looking over 
current issues I find that now, twenty years after, the 
same manufacturers are pegging away in the same 
place. The explanation of this is found in the axiom 
that "Necessity knows no law." These manufacturers 



2o6 Proceedings oi^ the 

had cut out the largest and best of their oak, elm, and 
basswood, but rather than seek a new location they 
concluded that perhaps they could use trees less than 
two and three feet in diameter, and so they stayed to 
cut them. After these were gone, they noticed that 
there were some mighty fine maple and beech trees 
left. Well, they cut the largest and best of these, and 
now they are at work on the other ones — not so large. 
Necessity has compelled us to see that beech, maple, 
and birch will take the place of elm and basswood for 
slack-cooperage work, and we are also learning that 
gum will make the best of barrels, when handled 
properly, and I presume that there are other timbers 
growing in our forests that only need intelligent hand- 
ling to become equally as available. Whatsoever the 
American Forestry Association or the Bureau of For- 
estry can do to demonstrate this, to prevent waste and 
destruction by fire and parasites, and to renew supplies, 
will be work well done, and which will go far to justify 
the establishing and support of such a department of 
our Government. If I have furnished anything of 
suggestion that will aid in that work it will be a source 
of gratification, not only at the present, but in the 
future, when the beneficent work of the Bureau has 
had time to make itself apparent. Indeed, much has 
already been accomplished, and while Mr. Defebaugh 
has paid a just and proper tribute to the worth and 
work of Secretary Wilson and Chief Pinchot, I cannot 
allow this opportunity to pass without saying a word 
for missionaries like Dr. Hermann Von Schrenk and 
others who have carried the war ''into Africa," and 
gone out to preach the gospel of forest preservation 
and restoration among the heathen. Their work has 
been good and effective work, as the success of this 
Congress fully attests. 



PART IV. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE PUBLIC FOREST 
LANDS TO GRAZING 



PRACTICAL RESULTS OF THE REGU- 
LATION OF GRAZING ON THE 
FOREST RESERVES 

BY 

A. F. POTTER 

Bureau ol Forestry 

I N the administration of the National Forest Re- 
serves, one of the first matters of importance which 
the Government has been called upon to settle, is the 
proper adjustment of grazing privileges. It has often 
happened that in the establishment of forest reserves 
the customary ranges used in pasturing live stock have 
been included and consequently the stockmen have 
been directly interested in the rules and regulations 
and the policy v^hich v^as to be adopted in their ad- 
ministration. 

At first there was considerable doubt as to the 
practicability of such regulation of grazing and stock- 
men feared that the restrictions imposed would be detri- 
mental to their interests. The sheepmen were alarmed 
because at first the rules excluded this class of stock en- 
tirely from all reserves except those of Oregon and 
Washington, and consequently they strongly opposed 
the creation of forest reserves elsewhere which included 
large areas of grazing land. By investigations which 
followed it was found that in many of the reserves 
total exclusion of sheep was unnecessary, but that a 
limited number of this class of stock could safely be 
allowed under such restrictions as would prevent 
injury to the forest and insure a proper use of the 
range. The regulations were therefore so modified 



2IO Proce:edings of thej 

as to permit sheep grazing under such circumstances. 

The Government reaHzes the importance of the Hve 
stock industry to the prosperity of the Western com- 
monwealth and the fact that a very large proportion 
of the people are directly dependent upo(n it for the 
support of their homes. 

The great economic value of the forage products 
of the forest reserves is also realized, and an effort 
has been made to use this resource in the way which 
appears to be best for the interests of all concerned. 

Care has been taken in the preparation and enforce- 
ment of grazing regulations to avoid, as far as 
possible, any unnecessary disturbance of business by 
sudden changes in the manner of using the grazing 
lands. An effort has also been made to fit the regula- 
tions to the actual needs of the reserves and to allow 
every privilege consistent with their proper care and 
management. 

In the settlement of questions concerning the use 
of products of the reserves all of the different interests 
must be recognized and considered. The stockmen 
must not expect to be allowed to use the grazing land 
in a way which would be seriously detrimejntal to the 
interests of the farmer depending upon the water 
supply from the reserve for irrigation, or which would 
destroy the forest growth. The lumberman must also 
consider these interests and the future welfare of the 
country, and be willing to cut and handle the timber 
in a way which will insure a continued growth of the 
forest. The farmer must not expect the Government 
to entirely stop the grazing of live stock or the cutting 
of timber, but must be content to have these things 
done under a proper system of regulation. 

Whenever it has been found that modifications or 
changes in the regulations were needed such action 



American Forest Congress 211 

has been taken as promptly as opportunity has offered 
the means of ascertaining the facts in such cases. 

Investigation of the ranges has shown that damage 
caused by Hve stock is usually due to overstocking, 
grazing too early in the season, or the manner in 
Vv^hich the stock is handled, all of which can be directly 
charged to the previous lack of any system of manage- 
ment rather than to the sheep or cattle. 

Overstocking has undoubtedly been by far the 
greatest cause of range destruction and decrease in 
its carrying capacity. Under the free range system 
of the west there has been very little restriction as to 
the number of stock anyone had the privilege of pas- 
turing on the public domain. The result has been 
that the ranges in many different localities have been 
very badly overcrowded and have rapidly declined in 
their pasturing value. 

Some of the ranges which were included within the 
forest reserves have been overcrowded with live stock, 
in some sections with sheep and goats, and others with 
cattle and horses, until the excessive use of the range 
had resulted in injury to the young growing forest, 
and great damage to the forage plants and grasses. 

On the creation of forest reserves in such localities 
in many cases the full number of stock, both sheep 
and cattle, which were then ranging there, have been 
allowed permits during the first year, and afterwards 
as it was found necessary. The number has been 
gradually reduced from year to year until a limit was 
reached which would allow as full utilization of the 
forage as possible without injury to the range. The 
result has been that by such management many of the 
badly overgrazed ranges have been greatly improved 
in condition and grazing value, and are fast being 
restored to their former usefulness. 



212 PrOCKKDINGS O^ the: 

The damage from sheep grazing was found to be 
largely due to the manner in which they were handled, 
although there was some sign of browsing young trees 
over the entire areas which had been overstocked. 
The injury from this cause was not usually serious 
except along routes of travel used in moving sheep 
from one range to another, or in the close vicinity of 
lambing grounds, and old camps. 

In places where the sheep had been camped on the 
same bed ground for a long time, perhaps a month or 
more in the same place, the grass and forage would 
be completely eaten out for a mile or so around, and 
many of the young seedling trees eaten or nibbled by 
the hungry stock. Damage by this system of handling 
is usually entirely unnecessary, and is detrimental to 
the best use of the range, as well as injurious to the 
forest. As the necessity for better management in the 
use of the range has become apparent, stockmen have 
fast realized the destructiveness of this method of 
handling sheep, and have adopted the plan of never 
bedding them more than two or three nights in the 
same place, and in some cases never driving the sheep 
to a bed ground at all, but allowing them to camp 
wherever night overtakes them, thus reducing the 
damage from this cause to a minimum, and, in fact, 
almost entirely removing it in many cases. 

The forest reserve regulations on this point require 
that sheep must not be bedded more than six nights 
in the same place, and the practical result of the appli- 
cation of this rule has been to improve the condition 
of many portions of the range. 

One of the greatest evils in the destruction of forage 
on the summer ranges is that of driving the stock in 
too early in the season, while the feed it yet immature. 
Lack of range control is usually responsible for this 
condition. 



Amkrican Fore:st Congri:ss 213 

If the number of stock to be driven to the mountains 
for pasture exceeds the number there is sufficient 
pasture for, there is often some particular section of 
the range which one man desires to secure ahead of 
his competitors, and in the struggle to get there first 
the stock are driven along as fast as possible and 
destroys as much feed by tramping as they consume 
in feeding. In some sections this competition for 
range continues during the entire season, and, of 
course, results in great destruction of forage as well 
as damage to the forest and water supply. 

Immediately upon a range coming under forest 
reserve control, the damage from this cause is checked 
and a better use of the forage results. Under this 
system of management the dates upon which stock 
will be allowed to enter and on which the season will 
close are designated, and the ranges are divided in 
the manner which appears most practicable, so that 
each stockman who is granted a permit, knows just 
what portion of the range he will be allowed to use, 
and when he can drive his stock in. Furthermore, 
he knows that on arriving there he will not find the 
range already occupied by someone else, consequently, 
there is no need for any haste in driving, and the 
stock are grazed along in a way that causes little 
damage. 

It has been found in some cases that ranges which 
apparently were greatly overstocked have shown a 
marked improvement in condition by the application 
of the grazing regulations without any reduction in 
the number of stock, other than the exclusion of tran- 
sient herds, showing clearly that the damage was due 
largely to the manner in which the stock has been 
handled. 

In the competition for free range, controversies have 

H 



214 Proceedings of the 

arisen between the cattlemen and sheepmen, or between 
large and small owners of stock, which have sometimes 
resulted in open warfare with an occasional homicide 
and great loss of property. The degree to which this 
warfare has been carried has been governed largely 
by the demand for the use of the range. In the first 
occupancy of the lands by stockmen, the ranges would 
usually be divided by mutual agreement in a way which 
would give each sufficient pasture for all of his stock, 
either sheep or cattle, and if the seasons continued 
favorable there would be no occasion for any serious 
dispute concerning its use. If, however, a certain 
portion of the range was drought-stricken and there 
was a consequent scarcity of feed and water, the stock 
belonging to the occupants of that portion of the 
range would naturally drift over on to the neighbor- 
ing ranges where conditions were more favorable. 
As long as this did not result in overcrowding to the 
extent that all of the stock became thin in flesh, there 
might be a little grumbling, but no serious trouble 
would arise. Whenever it was plainly apparent, how- 
ever, that such intrusion upon the ranges was causing 
financial loss, the first step taken was usually to notify 
the owners of the stock to remove the same and provide 
feed and water for them elsewhere. In case of refusal 
on the part of the owner, there being no law for the 
settlement of such matters, the next step would be an 
attempt to remove the stock by force. Just what re- 
sistance would be offered was, of course, always a 
very hard matter to foretell; sometimes no trouble 
would arise, and at other times it would result se- 
riously. 

Owing to the fact that sheep are herded and cattle 
usually turned loose, the sheepmen have had an advan- 
tage in the use of the public grazing lands because of 



American Forest Congress 215 

the fact that they had their business under a better 
system of control. In case of lack of feed or water 
in any particular locality the sheepman could imme- 
diately move his stock to other and better pasture, 
while it was necessary for the cattleman to round up 
or gather his stock before any such move could be 
made, and this often meant an entire season*s work. 
The result has been that where the use of the range 
has been unrestricted the number of sheep has in- 
creased more rapidly in proportion than the number 
of cattle, and in some localities the sheepmen have 
taken possession of the range to an extent that it has 
become almost impossible for the settlers to find pasture 
for their small bands of cattle. 

The result of forest reserve regulation has been to 
settle these controversies so far as the grazing lands 
within the reserves are concerned, and an important 
step in the advancement of a better system in the 
management of grazing lands has been made. After 
an investigation of the claims presented by the stock- 
men and a careful consideration of all interests 
concerned, the Government has defined the privileges 
to be granted to each opposing faction. In some cases 
it has been thought advisable to exclude sheep from 
portions of certain reserves and allow cattlemen the 
exclusive use of such areas. In such cases, however, 
whenever it has appeared that it was necessary for 
sheep to cross closed areas in being driven from their 
customary ranges to points of shipment or between 
summer and winter ranges, driveways have been pro- 
vided to meet the necessities of the demand and allow 
the proper handling of the stock. In other cases the 
reserves have been divided into districts in which 
sheep and cattle have been pastured jointly, the number 
of each class allowed being restricted to what was 



2i6 Procke:dings 01^ the; 

considered a fair division in the use of the range. It 
has been found that oftentimes a better utihzation of 
the forage has been obtained in this way, as there 
would be portions of each district which were better 
adapted to the pasturing of one class of stock than 
the other at certain periods of the season, and that 
sheep would eat many little weeds and plants which 
were not touched by cattle, and cattle many of the 
coarser grasses which the sheep did not feed upon. 
As long as the total number of each class of stock is 
restricted to the actual capacity of the range and each 
stockman knows such to be the fact, there is no trouble 
between the different owners, and all soon realize the 
benefits and appreciate the value of this system of 
control. 

One of the greatest causes of forest destruction 
throughout the West has been fire, and the prevention 
of fires is one of the most difficult problems in the 
management of the reserves. Just how far the stock- 
men have been responsible for the destruction of the 
forest by fire is a hard matter to determine. Burning 
to clear out the brush and undergrowth so that cattle 
could have free access to the grass, and burning the 
old grass in places where it had not been grazed off, 
for the purpose of securing a new growth of green 
feed, have been resorted to in past years, but these 
customs have been almost entirely abandoned on 
account of their general destructiveness. 

A large proportion of forest fires start from camp 
fires, which are thoughtlessly left by campers, pros- 
pectors, hunters, and stockmen. It is of great import- 
ance that the unnecessary destruction from this cause 
be realized and every precaution taken to reduce the 
prevalence of fires started in this way. 

The reports of the forest reserve supervisors show 



American Forest Congress 217 

that the number of fires starting from camp fires left 
by stockmen or for which stockmen are in any way 
responsible has decreased from year to year, and also 
that the stockmen have been the most wiUing volun- 
teers and rendered the most effective service wherever 
assistance was needed in fighting forest fires starting 
from any cause. On account of their presence on the 
ground, so that service could be rendered on short 
notice, stockmen have greatly assisted the forest reserve 
officers in saving large areas of timber from destruction 
by fire. It seems fair to say that one of the practical 
results of the regulation of grazing has been the estab- 
lishment of a strong and effective volunteer fire 
service. 

The stockman has learned from experience that 
forest reserve protection of the summer ranges means 
an improvement in the condition of his stock and an 
increase in the profits of his business. During the 
past season when stock in many range sections suffered 
severely on account of lack of food and water, those 
who were fortunate enough to have pasturing privi- 
leges in the forest reserves were able to get their stock 
fat. While many of the outside stock on overcrowded 
ranged remained thin in flesh, the result being that the 
stock pastured on the forest reserves were in better 
demand and sold for more money than those from the 
outside ranges. 

As the policy of the Government becomes better 
understood and the benefits to be derived from judi- 
cious management of the grazing land is shown by 
practical demonstration, the opposition of the stockmen 
to the creation of forest reserves will be entirely 
removed and they will cooperate with the Government 
in the proper regulation of grazing and the permanent 
improvement of the ranges. 



THE PROTECTION OF HOME BUILDERS 

IN THE REGULATION OF GRAZ-l 

ING ON FOREST RESERVES 

BY 
E. S. GOSNEY 

President Arizona Woolgrowers' Association 

HTHE home was the foundation of the first laws of 
civilization, it always has been and must remain 
the foundation of every independent government of 
the people by the people. The necessity of the fullest 
protection of the homes of our country and the builders 
of these homes is seldom realized and never over- 
estimated. 

By "home-builders" we do not mean the dwellers 
in palaces of wealth and luxury, nor do we mean the 
shiftless nomad. But we refer to that great class of 
honest, loyal Americans of limited means who have a 
substantial appreciation of home and country. Those 
people whose highest ambition is to build a home of 
their own for themselves and their families where 
they can live in comfort, frugal independence, and 
happiness. Such homes have given us our Lincolns, 
our Grants and our Garfields. They have given this 
country its high place as a nation among nations. 
They include all classes and grades of intelligence, 
education, and refinement. Honest purpose is the 
only requisite to bring them within the class of home- 
builders. A man's capacity, energy and environments 
determine the character of the home he will build; 
but on the protection of such homes, the development 
of their integrity and patriotism, depend the life of 



American Forest Congress 219 

the nation and the protection of our property and 
person. 

Such citizens demand careful, patient consideration, 
whether encountered in the mines, factories, and farms 
of the East or on the mountains and plains of the 
West. And this is especially true of the Western 
forest reserve management, because it embodies a 
radical innovation on their customs, rights, and life. 

Many persons dwell in the towns, villages, and the 
country throughout these reserves and in the irri- 
gated and unirrigated districts below and about the 
reserves. They are cattlemen, horsemen, sheepmen, 
farmers, or miners, as the case may be, and the con- 
fidence and cooperation of each of these men, espe- 
cially the stockmen, is necessary to a full protection 
of the forest reserves and a full realization of the high 
purposes of forestry. The administration needs their 
confidence and cooperation, and they need the pro- 
tection of fair, just, and intelligent regulations and 
management in the grazing as in all other regulations 
for the protection of their interests in whatever class 
they fall. 

President Roosevelt, standing in the pine forest on 
the rim of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, a few 
months ago, said of our Arizona forest reserves, "Use 
them for grazing, for farming, for lumber, for what- 
ever they are*best adapted, but so use them that you 
will not destroy their usefulness for future genera- 
tions." And in his heart every man in that audience 
said, "Amen." The difference comes only when you 
attempt to decide what use is harmful and what use 
is protective in its results, honest differences as yet 
unsettled, and usually the theorist who rushes over 
the reserve on a hurried tour of inspection or rides 
through on a train at forty miles an hour is the most 
positive as to necessary regulations and results. 



^2o Proceedings of the 

It is unfortunate that in connection with the creation 
of forest reserves there have been opportunities 
through the ''lieu land" laws and the railroad grants 
for lands for private speculation running into millions 
of acres and multiples of millions of dollars which 
have naturally been taken advantage of, and in the 
manipulation of these schemes every means, in Wash- 
ington and out of it, has been made use of. Men 
have made it their business to go among the people 
and agitate with extravagant theories and spread false 
representations by public and private statements and 
subsidized newspapers, to the great injustice and dam- 
age of all grazing industries, especially sheep, and of 
every interest affected except the scheme that was 
covered with this veneering of pretended interest in 
forestry. In this way public sentiment was created 
favoring extended forest reserves where no forest 
existed, more "lieu lands,'' and incidentally more spec- 
ulation and bitterness and distrust among the people 
and toward the cause of forestry. 

The field work in connection with forest grazing 
regulations is new and necessarily handled in many 
cases by inexperienced and overconfident representa- 
tives. Many crude and unjust rulings and damaging 
regulations have been the result of the over-confidence 
of such representatives. Range allotments must not 
be arbitrarily changed on the protest of one party 
without notice to others interested and due regard to 
water rights and the carrying capacity of the ranges. 
Stock trails must not be established with regulations 
that would damage the interests involved and consti- 
tute a fit subject for the attention of humane societies 
to prevent cruelty to the animals confined to such trails 
without adequate feed or water. Regulations as to 
water development must not discourage and retard 



American Forest Congress 221 

rather than protect and encourage such work in arid 
regions. To assure this the field inspector must be a 
man of experience and exceptional ability, and the 
office force at Washington must not only be good men, 
as they are, but they must be given an opportunity 
to learn these conditions and to study in the field the 
methods of handling stock, lest in overcoming one 
difficulty they create others they know not of. The 
people interested must be fully advised and consulted 
as to such regulations, then the facts and results will 
be understood and mistakes avoided. It must be re- 
membered that the mass of the people familiar with the 
range conditions can see no excuse for such mistakes, 
and believe them to be the result of a reckless disregard 
of their interests and rights. There must be closer 
relations between the stockmen and home-builders, 
and the forest officials. Their representations must be 
frank and open ; they must know one another. If 
there are conflicting interests the parties must be 
brought together and no contest settled on an ex-parte 
hearing. Before any radical change is made, the in- 
terests affected should have a hearing, and candor, 
honesty and frankness should be recognized and due 
appreciation shown, while selfish misrepresentations 
and willful disregard of regulations and the rights 
of others should be sufficient cause for ridding the 
reserves of this irresponsible class of men. We spend 
millions annually educating the children. We should 
give some time and attention to the conservative edu- 
cation of citizens in and about forest reserves, likewise 
to the training of rangers and administrative officers 
in the interest of harmony, of intelligent appreciation, 
and of the necessities of the requirements and changed 
conditions. 

The general principles recommended by the Bureau 



222 Proceedings of the 

of Forestry a few years ago and endorsed by the 
Secretary of the Interior, but not yet put to practical 
use, were sound as a basis. Some day these principles 
and regulations now being worked out for the control 
of grazing on forest reserves will be carried out in all 
or most of the public grazing lands with such modifica- 
tions as may be found necessary in each locality; and 
the regulations for each locality must be governed by 
local conditions. The chief danger is too great haste, 
over-confidence. 

There is no real conflict of interest between the 
home-builder on the irrigated ranch and the home- 
builder in the forest reserve, with his cattle or sheep 
grazing on the public lands. Whatever destroys the 
productiveness of the soil, whether too many stock, 
bad management, fire, or recklessness in any manner, 
damages all. The stockman largely consumes the 
product of the farm and the farm provides the necessa- 
ries of the stockman. The conflicts between cattle 
and sheep interests are the clashing of individual in- 
terests and not of the two industries. The very food 
they eat is different. Cattle eat the grass, sheep the 
weeds of the range when left to their choice. If the 
individuals can be brought together and calmly talk 
their differences over, 90 per cent, of such evils will 
disappear. 

I shall not attempt to lay down a code of regulations 
for grazing on forest reserves or off of them. The 
man or men who attempt to fix in advance anything 
more than the general principles of such regulations 
will fail. Let us remember that it has required more 
than half a century to build up the mining laws and 
regulations of our country, imperfect as they still 
are, and they were all based upon and grew out of 
a few general principles and simple rules agreed upon 



American Forest Congress 223 

by a handful of sturdy prospectors and miners who 
gathered about their CaHfornia campfires sixty years 
ago. Their problem was simple compared to the graz- 
ing problem. If these men could not then devise a 
perfected system applicable to the varied interests that 
the subsequent development of the mineral wealth of 
our country have presented, how can they devise rules 
and regulations for all climates and conditions of 
grazing? These must be the growth of experience 
in each locality, the slow evolution of the industry 
from which the speculator and the theorist must be 
eliminated. 

For some reason the average expert, examining the 
forest or range on any point of policy or use, seems 
to feel called upon to keep his business a profound 
secret, especially from those settlers whose experience 
and observation in the locality, form one of the neces- 
sary premises of logical, correct conclusion and report. 
These methods tend to create and develop a spirit of 
distrust between the settler and the official, instead of 
confidence and cooperation. This criticism is not 
applicable to all, but is quite prevalent and calls for a 
radical reform in methods. The pioneer stockman 
or settler knows more about his own range than any 
expert and he must be reckoned with in any final solu- 
tion. The average expert on forestry or grazing 
operating unaided in a country new to him is one of 
the most fallible men I know, however honest or ex- 
tensively drilled in technical schools. 

Much depends upon the supervisor of a forest re- 
serve, who must be a strong man, with plenty of 
common sense. He must not be opinionated or unduly 
sensitive. He must be a man of character, a judge of 
men, and ever ready to learn from the most humble 
and illiterate home-builder, and to patiently advise 



224 Proceedings of the 

and guide such people into the correct Hnes of thought 
and action. I fully realize such men are not plentiful, 
but they exist and must be had, and when found, and 
by experience educated, should be retained. They in 
turn must be guided by a more wise and inspiring 
administration at Washington. Give the home-build- 
ers in and about these forest reserves an administration 
in which they have full confidence, one whose officers 
do not get out of humor and write petulant and un- 
called for letters and orders before they thoroughly 
understand the facts; an administration which always 
consults the people as to the people's needs and fully 
advises them as to the supposed needs of the forest 
and the objects of any and all restrictions. When this 
confidence is established and a few unruly and disturb- 
ing elements are judiciously amputated from the body 
of stock grazers you will have among stockmen and 
home-builders a class of forest protectors worth more 
to the service and to forestry than all the rangers the 
government can employ, a class of men you cannot 
hire. 

Perhaps the most dangerous element the people are 
facing to-day on the grazing question, whether in the 
forest reserves or on the public domain outside, is the 
land and stock monopolies. I speak of these with 
hesitancy, knowing that my position will be misunder- 
stood and misconstrued by many. Among these large 
stock and land companies are some of the ablest and 
best men of the country ; many of them are my friends ; 
most of them are employed on tempting salaries to 
look after the interests of these large companies; em- 
ployed because of their splendid abilities, their char- 
acter, and influence; and, like faithful advocates, they 
are doing their duty most admirably. The time was 
when there was little or no conflict between these 



Ame:rican Forkst Congress 225 

interests, and the few small stockmen and home- 
builders. Then came the "rustler," who, tempted by 
opportunity, appropriated the cattle and stock of these 
companies along with parts of the range, and I am 
sorry the "rustler" is not yet extinct. But the public 
lands of the West are rapidly filling with real home- 
builders, and these large ranges, outside of the Mexi- 
can grant lands and private holdings, must be given 
up to the use of the settlers. We, whose stock feed in 
large pastures and cover large areas of public lands, 
must gradually give way to the smaller home-builder; 
and I regard the change as no individual calamity, 
but as a part of the evolution of the greatest country 
and best government civilization has known. 

The powers that control these large companies and 
employ our friends, their advocates, will give up with 
reluctance and only at the end of a hard struggle. To 
this end Congress has been besieged with lobbies and 
bills for the leasing of the public domain, and for the 
exchange and consolidation of the railroad grant lands 
all in the interest of these monopolies, but shrewdly and 
ably covered up a veneering of some benefits to the 
public, real or imaginary. 

These measures are dangerous because of the money 
behind them, of the ability and character of their ad- 
vocates, and because of the sincerity of some begotten 
of the study of one side only, and chiefly because, for 
the most part, but one side is represented in the contest. 
The home-builders are busy with their home affairs; 
individually they have neither the means nor training 
necessary to meet the arguments of the interests that 
threaten them. They have no organization and, in 
fact, few of them know what is being done for or 
against their interests ; but let some of these deceptive, 
unwise, and unjust measures pass Congress, which 



226 Proceedings of the 

will deprive the honest home-builder of a just propor- 
tion of the public range about the home he has built, 
or is building, and you have sown in the heart of that 
home and of every humble home in that community 
the seeds of discontent and distrust and have gone one 
step back toward anarchy. 

The discussion of this question cannot be limited 
to the forest reserves ; and they tell us the land suitable 
for the home-builder is all gone ; that there is no more 
farming land and it is time the Government should 
classify what is left, dispose of grazing lands for graz- 
ing purposes, and "go out of the land business." No 
statement could be more incorrect or misleading. We 
are just beginning to learn the value and use of the 
land of the West. 

Some years ago the founder of a great land and 
stock company was driving with a boy through the 
great San Joaquin Valley of California. They saw 
a team plowing in the distance and drove on. After 
courteous salutations, the conversation ran like this : 

"Are you preparing to put in a crop here?" 

"Yes." 

"What kind of a crop do you think you can raise 
in this valley ?" 

"Wheat." 

"How long have you been in this country?" 

"About three months." 

"I thought so." 

"Don't you think I can raise wheat here?" 

"I know you cannot." 

"How long have you been here?" 

"Thirty years." 

"I thought so." 

This is not a story created for the occasion. It is a 
historical fact. The boy is one of the honored mem- 



American Forest Congress 227 

bers of this Congress. His companion was one of 
California's most able and eminent men, a mental 
athlete who failed, after thirty years of experience 
and observation, to classify the great San Joaquin 
Valley as agricultural. In view of such experiences, 
what must we expect of any expert or commission 
charged with the classification of the vast areas of arid 
lands. What could the expert have told you of the 
oil wells of California and Texas thirty years ago? 

With the rapid development of irrigation and water 
storage with governmental aid, and with the develop- 
ment of water from beneath the surface scarcely be- 
gun, the future possibilities of the deserts, valleys, and 
plains of the Western domain are yet beyond our 
comprehension, and the Government should hold fast 
these titles for the home-builders of the future which 
will come with these developments. 

Through each step of this evolution we must re- 
rnember the absent home-builders of little means and 
limited opportunities, and zealously protect their op- 
portunities for the future against the encroachments 
of^ the strong and aggressive, if we expect them to 
raise up patriotic sons and daughters who will perpet- 
uate this as a just and free government; the grandest 
heritage we can leave to our posterity, to humanity. 



ADVANTAGE OF COOPERATION BE- 
TWEEN THE GOVERNMENT AND 
LIVE STOCK ASSOCIATIONS IN THE 
REGULATION AND CONTROL OF 
GRAZING ON FOREST RESERVES 

BY 

FRED P. JOHNSON 

Secretary National Live Stock Association 

A SSUMING that it is conceded that the forest re- 
^^ serves may be used in an economical manner for 
the grazing of live stock, the absolute necessity of an 
efficient control and regulation of this privilege, for 
the protection of the reserves, must be admitted. 

To those not familiar with the vast areas the forest 
reserves cover, the task of providing an efficient patrol 
to guard them and prevent their injury, may seem a 
mere matter of detail. Those who are familiar with 
these conditions, on the contrary, are inclined to the 
belief that the whole United States Army would hardly 
furnish enough men to give the adequate protection 
needed. While, under the present system of patrol, a 
small army of men are in service, the protection af- 
forded is only nominal. How then can the stockmen 
be allowed to graze in these reserves with the assurance 
that they will be rightly used, and not only the grazing, 
but the forests as well, be protected from misuse and 
vandalism, for there is vandalism in grazing as well as 
in the destruction of forests? 

From my knowledge of the stockmen in the West, 
I can assert that there is no class of men more vitally 



American Fori:st Congress 229 

interested in sane and reasonable forest protection than 
the stockmen. If given an opportunity, no class of 
men could furnish more absolute and reliable protec- 
tion for these reserves. But would they do it? Yes, 
if properly approached in the matter. 

The western stockman is of a peculiar disposition^ 
due probably to his environment. Restless and impa- 
tient under any attempt to bind him to iron-clad rules 
and regulations, yet, when approached with a request 
for help and assistance, even though he may derive no 
benefit, he is quick to respond. It has been the fajlure 
of governmental departments to understand this phase 
of his character that has resulted in much opposition 
to forest reserves. As the pioneer, who braved the 
dangers and hardships of the frontier to open the way 
to civilization, he has felt that he had acquired some 
moral rights which even the Government should re- 
spect, and to have a stranger ride up to him while on 
the range and dictate to him things that he may or may 
not do, even though spoken in the name of the Govern- 
ment, is galling to his pride and that feeling of absolute 
freedom which has been bred into his nature. Ap- 
proached by the proper officials with an explanation 
of the necessity of the forest reserves; the good that 
will eventually result to him from their establishment, 
and a request for assistance in maintaining them and 
carrying out the plans of the Government, would meet 
with immediate and hearty response. 

All over the West there are organizations of stock- 
men who have associated themselves together for the 
protection of their interests and for the improvement 
of conditions in their industry. These organizations 
are composed of the leading and progressive stockmen 
in the various districts. These are men who are build- 
ing homes in the desert and they are profoundly inter- 



230 Proceedings o^ the 

ested in anything that affects the prosperity of their 
locality. Here, already organized, is an army of men 
greater than any the Government could press into 
service for this purpose, ready, willing, effective, and 
to be had for the asking. The Government has only 
to request that in return for the privilege of grazing 
on these reserves, that the organized stock association 
assume the task of protecting them, fostering the vege- 
tation and preventing fire and vandalism. It is pos- 
sible that many of them do not thoroughly understand 
the problem the Government has undertaken to solve; 
then they should be enlightened, and it v^ould be found 
that there w^ould be no more enthusiastic supporters 
of the reserves than the stockmen. 

It must not be understood that I advocate the com- 
plete turning over of these reserves to the stock 
interests. The Government control and supervision 
must be absolute, but the organized stockmen could be 
sworn in as forest officers. They should have at least 
an advisory voice in the making of the rules and regu- 
lations and in return should be given as much freedom 
in the use of the reserves for grazing purposes as 
would be consistent and in keeping with the objects to 
be attained. 

The advantage of such cooperation between the 
government and stockmen must be evident. The 
advantage to the Government is to enlist the active 
assistance of men who live on the ground, as it were, 
in the advancement of the forest reserve idea. Under 
such an arrangement the reserves would have a better 
protection than could possibly be obtained in any other 
way and at the minimum cost for administration. In- 
stead of the antagonism of a large class of citizens who 
really have rights that the public is morally bound to 
respect, you will have their enthusiastic support. This, 



American Fori^st Congress 231 

in my mind, is worth much. On the other hand, the 
stockmen are made to reaHze that these reserves are 
being maintained for the benefit of the community in 
which they live, and they, having secured a personal 
interest in the success of the idea, will do their utmost 
to build up the reserves along the lines desired. While 
they are given the right to use the reserves for grazing 
purposes, the privilege will not be abused under such 
conditions, for the community, being interested, will 
permit no abuse. 

The time to inaugurate the proposed plan is at hand, 
since the reserves have passed into the control of the 
Department of Agriculture, through the recent passage 
of a bill by Congress transferring the administration 
of the reserves from the Department of the Interior. 
The Department of Agriculture is closer to the stock- 
man than any other department of the Government, 
and now that the transfer is accomplished it will be an 
easy matter to secure this cooperation. 

It is unnecessary in a paper of this kind to go into 
the details of a plan to secure this cooperation. It is 
a perfectly simple matter, and where there at present 
does not exist live stock associations to take up this 
work, they would be quickly organized when it was 
understood that the Government was willing to recog- 
nize them and accept their assistance in the building 
up of the reserves and in the maintenance of their 
safety and integrity. As to the question of the wisdom 
of adopting the policy suggested, it seems to me that 
there can be no negative argument worth considering, 
none at least from those who understand the actual 
conditions in the West. 



NECESSITY OF USING THE FOREST RE- 
SERVES FOR GRAZING PURPOSES 

BY 

SENATOR FRANCIS E. WARREN 

President National Woolgrowers' Association 

pOREST protection in the United States by Govern- 
ment interposition is of recent origin, dating from 
March 3, 1891, when in the act to repeal the timber 
culture laws, a section was placed conferring upon the 
President authority to set apart and reserve public 
lands, wholly or in part covered with timber or under- 
growth, whether of commercial value or not, as public 
reservations. 

If the law authorizing the creation of forest reserves 
had been enacted half a century earlier, the people of 
the United States would to-day be richer than they 
are by billions of dollars, the value of countless acres 
of timber wasted in the ruthless rush for earlier devel- 
opment of the country and destroyed by fire for want 
of adequate protection, mainly the latter. 

The forestry reserve law which took the place of 
the timber-culture law (under which nine millions of 
acres of public lands passed into the ownership of 
individuals), is simple in terms and occupies but brief 
space in the statutes. But its effect has been far-reach- 
ing, and under it has grown up in the brief period it 
has been in existence a new and important branch of 
governmental administration. 

The forest reserve law has been taken advantages of 
during every year since its enactment for the creation 
of forest reserves, excepting during the years 1894, 



American Forest Congress 233 

1895, and 1896. During the other eleven years the 
law has been in operation the several Presidents have 
issued proclamations creating fifty-nine forest reserves, 
embracing 62,763,494 acres, an area so great that com- 
parisons are necessary in order to obtain an adequate 
conception of it. 

If the various reserves were assembled in one com- 
pact tract, the aggregate area would be greater than 
that of the great State of Wyoming ; greater than the 
area of Michigan, of Oregon, of Utah, of Minnesota, 
or of Nebraska. It would be greater than the com- 
bined area of all the New England States, with New 
Jersey and Delaware thrown in for good measure, and 
it would be greater than New York and Pennsylvania 
combined. 

The primary object of the creation of forest reserves 
was that the timber supply of the country might be 
husbanded and preserved, and that the denudation of 
the great timbered areas of the country, which was 
progressing with fateful rapidity, might be choked. 
But with the creation of the reserves a more important 
object was evolved, and that is the preservation of the 
water supply. I cannot better describe this object than 
by quoting from the message of President Roosevelt 
to Congress at the opening of its present session : 

"This" (the preservation of the water supply) "is 
their most important use. The principal users of the 
water thus preserved are irrigation ranchers and set- 
tlers, cities and town to whom their municipal water 
supplies are of the very first importance, users and 
furnishers of water power, and the users of water for 
domestic, manufacturing, mining, and other purposes. 
All these are directly dependent upon the forest 
reserves." 

The beneficial object of the withdrawal from unre- 



234 Proceedings of the 

stricted public use of the forest lands of the West and 
their creation into reservations, has the endorsement 
of residents of Western States, even though the public 
land area of those States is seriously diminished. The 
Western people, patriotic in all things, acquiesced in 
the intrenchment upon their States for the general 
public good. Although the creation of forest reserves 
and forest regulations often work hardships to individ- 
uals and to communities, there is no branch of the 
Government which has more loyal support from West- 
ern citizens than has the forest service. 

That there have been earnest complaints concerning 
it cannot be denied. That these complaints were just 
is evident, for the two great administrative arms of 
the Government, the Department of the Interior and 
the Department of Agriculture, have taken cognizance 
of them, and have provided remedies for many of the 
complaints, until now there is a fair degree of harmony 
between the people directly concerned by forest reserve 
regulation and the forest service. 

The complaints which have attended the administra- 
tion of the forest reserve law grew out of the mistaken 
notion of many minor officials, and of some whose 
places were quite high on the official roster, that the 
reserves and what they contained were to be withdrawn 
from public use. They acted in their dealings with 
those living on or near the reserves on the theory that 
the timber, the grass, the water, and even the air, 
was reserved for the use of the Government and such 
of its official servants who might happen to have their 
abiding place, temporarily or permanently, on the 
reserves. 

Happily, this idea of withdrawing the reserves from 
all use has, year by year, lost its potency. Investiga- 
tion, examination, and experience demonstrated that 



American Forest Congress 235 

the reserves, by judicious use, could best be preserved, 
and the welcome words of President Roosevelt, in his 
latest message to Congress, coincide with the views 
which have been held by Western citizens since the 
creation of the reserves, and they illustrate also how 
closely and clearly the President is in touch with West- 
ern needs and interests. In his message he said : 

"It is the cardinal principle of the forest reserve 
policy of this administration that the reserves are for 
use. Whatever interferes with the use of their re- 
sources is to be avoided by every possible means." 

The most serious complaint lodged against the 
administrative regulations of the forest reserve was 
in reference to the restriction (in the earlier days of 
the reservations, amounting to almost prohibition,) of 
live stock grazing on the reserves. 

While the restrictive regulations were applied to all 
classes of live stock, they were particularly and almost 
viciously severe in reference to sheep. And, while it 
may not be germane to my subject, it might be noted 
that the poor sheep and the still poorer sheepman have 
been the object of hostility of mankind almost since 
the beginning of recorded time. The first attempt to 
put a sheepman out of business was when Cain slew 
his brother Abel, who "was a keeper of sheep." Even 
the great John Randolph, it is said, declared "that he 
would walk a mile out of his way any time to kick 
a sheep." 

And this innate antipathy to sheep and sheepmen 
found expression in the earlier regulations which the 
officers of the forest service saw fit to put into effect 
for the care and protection of reserves. With little 
or no practical knowledge of the subject, they held 
the sheep to be the most destructive animal in existence. 
If allowed within the forest reserves, it was charged, 



236 Proceedings o^ the 

this ravenous creature would not only eat the grasses 
found there, but would feed on the shrubs and shoots, 
and if hunger were not fully appeased by this diet, 
would climb the trees and devour the tender branches. 
If allowed to cross the reserves, it was claimed that 
the sharp hoofs of the sheep would cut and pack the 
spongy forest soil so that floods and serious soil erosion 
would follow and forest reproduction would be en- 
dangered. Then, too, it was charged that the herders 
would leave camp fires uncared for and that fire and 
destruction would follow in the wake of the shepherds 
and their flocks. 

It took many years for the Western stockmen to 
convince the officials in Washington that sheep do not 
climb trees and do not eat coniferous plant or tree 
growth, which forms the greater part of timber of 
Western reserves. It took much effort to convince 
them that grazing off the heavy growth of weeds and 
wild grass in the many parts of the reserves was the 
best protection that could be provided against the 
spread of fires. It has taken much demonstration to 
convince them that it was more to the interest of the 
stockman than any other class to protect the reserves 
against fire and that scarcely an authenticated case could 
be found where a forest fire originated purposely or 
carelessly with a stockman. 

There have been exceptions to this class of officials. 
Two notable ones occur to me at this time, the present 
Commissioner of the General Land Office, and the 
Forester of the Department of Agriculture. 

Following the advent of these officials into the forest 
service have come reforms along practical lines which 
have the sanction and approval of the President and 
the warm welcome of the woolgrower and stockman. 

These reforms have been along the lines of more 



Amejrican Forest Congress 237 

stringent regulations for policing and patrolling the 
reserves, more liberal regulations for permitting set- 
tlers to obtain timber for their own use, more liberal 
regulations concerning live stock grazing and sheep- 
crossing permits, careful investigation of the character 
of the lands before including them in forest reserves 
and in the investigation of lands previously included 
with a view to restoring them to public entry and set- 
tlement, if found more valuable for grazing or agri- 
culture than for growth of timber. 

These reforms followed the earlier onerous regula- 
tions and were the result of petitions for relief sent to 
the Department of the Interior from individual settlers 
and ranchmen, stock associations, stockgrowers, and 
irrigation congresses, and of personal requests for a 
more liberal attitude towards Western people made 
by members of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives from Western States. 

During the year just closed sheep were allowed to 
enter and graze in twenty-one forest reserves, and 
cattle and horses in fifty-five, while in 1901 but eight 
reserves were opened to sheep and thirty to cattle and 
horses. In 1904 there were issued 843 sheep grazing 
permits allowing 1,806,722 sheep to enter and graze 
on the reserves as against 391 permits and 1,214,418 
sheep in 1901. 

During last year 5,874 permits for cattle and horses 
were issued and 620,657 head of this class of live stock 
allowed to graze as against 1,926 permits and 277,621 
head of stock in 1901. During the year ending June 
30, 1904, 919,225 additional sheep were allowed to trail 
across the reservations in going to grazing grounds or 
shipping points outside of the reserves. 

To more correctly make known the necessities of 
using the forest reserves for grazing purposes a refer- 



238 Proceedings of the 

ence to forestry in my own State — ^Wyoming — would 
not be out of place, as conditions there are typical of 
conditions generally. 

When Wyoming was admitted to statehood in 1890 
its area was 62,641,920 acres. Since that time over 
ten per cent, of the area of Wyoming has been with- 
drawn from public settlement and created into forest 
reserves. The State has given up for the general 
public good an area larger than the State of Massachu- 
setts, larger than New Hampshire, or New Jersey, or 
Vermont, or Maryland. There has been no serious 
complaint on account of the great area thus withdrawn 
and reserved, but there has been complaint as to indis- 
criminate early withdrawals of great tracts of land not 
forest, but grazing lands. There has been complaint 
also that grazing restrictions in the reserves were too 
severe and that a much smaller number of live stock 
was permitted to enter the reserves during the grazing 
seasons than the parks and open spaces in the reserves 
would carry without detriment. There has been com- 
plaint that the bureaucracy of the forest reserve admin- 
istration caused unnecessary delay in the granting of 
timber cutting permits and that many matters that 
should be settled by local officers had to be referred 
to Washington, thus causing much needless delay and 
inconvenience to the ranchman and stockman. 

Some of their complaints have been given due con- 
sideration and reforms inaugurated to remedy them. 
The Commissioner of the General Land Office, in 
charge of the administration work of the service, and 
the Forester of the Department of Agriculture, in 
charge of the scientific features of forestry, took cog- 
nizance of the complaint that lands were included in 
reserves regardless of their character and conjointly 
conducted investigations and examinations to remedy 
this evil. 



American Fore:st Congress 239 

An investigation was made of the Yellowstone re- 
serve, the largest in the United States, which required 
no days and 1,800 miles of travel by a skilled engineer 
and forest expert and their assistants. As a result 
of their investigation they recommended the elimina- 
tion from the reserve of 559,350 acres of grazing and 
agricultural lands and the addition of 130,560 acres 
of outside timber lands, making a net reduction in the 
reserve of 428,800 acres. This recommendation was 
approved by the Commissioner of the General Land 
Office and the Forester, and the change in the reserva- 
tion area directed by presidential proclamation. A 
similar investigation was made of the Big Horn forest 
reserve, Wyoming, which was reduced in size by 
eliminating 65,000 acres. 

I am of the opinion that still more liberality could 
be shown in granting grazing privileges without detri- 
ment to the objects for which the reserves were created 
and with great benefit to those living within the vicinity 
of the reserves. 

Wyoming has many resources. It is one of the 
leading coal producing States of the Union. It has 
shipping mines of copper and iron. It produces oil 
of superior quality and in great quantity. Its building 
stone is used in many outside States, and it has as many 
farms in proportion to population as any State in the 
Union. But the chief industry of Wyoming is the 
raising of live stock, and under the conditions which 
have prevailed for nearly half a century, grazing on 
the public domain constitutes the principal method of 
live stock raising. To arbitrarily withdraw from 
general public use an area of over 7,000,000 acres, 
which is perhaps twenty per cent, of the public grazing 
lands of the State, would seriously endanger this great 
live stock industry if needlessly severe regulations were 



240 Proceedings o^ the 

kept in force for the control of the reserves. It is, 
therefore, a necessity that good judgment be exercised 
in granting grazing privileges so that the fullest 
measure of capacity of the reserves may be accorded 
the live stock interests, at the same time guarding 
against forest injury. In my opinion the reserves of 
Wyoming, the forests of which are all of coniferous 
growth, would bear without injury a decided increase 
of live stock during the grazing season. 

Complaints have been made justly from time to 
time of the refusal to allow stock to be trailed across 
the reserves for shipment or to reach grazing grounds 
on the public domain. These complaints have, in a 
large measure, been remedied, but there is still room 
for improvement. 

The conditions in Wyoming apply generally to the 
entire Western country, and the needs of the sheepmen 
and other live stock owners in relation to the forest 
reserves are general and may be summarized as fol- 
lows: 

First: Thorough and complete topographic exami- 
nations should be made of all forest reserves with a 
view to restoring to the public domain all grazing and 
agricultural lands, and all lands covered with timber 
of non-commercial value and valueless as a protection 
to watersheds or the headwaters of streams, or for the 
protection of water supplies for cities and towns. 

Second : Adequate public trails should be established 
across forest reserves so that sheep and other live 
stock might be moved across the reserves to reach graz- 
ing grounds, markets or shipping points, with the least 
possible inconvenience to owners. 

Third : The grazing capacity of each reserve should 
be estimated by local officials, who should take into 
consideration the actual conditions of grass growth 



American Forest Congress 241 

each year, and the reserves should be opened during 
the grazing seasons to the full capacity of the reserves, 
consistent with their preservation and the prevention of 
over grazing. 

Fourth: The administration of the reserves should 
be placed, as far as possible, in the hands of local 
officials, and the rangers, supervisors, and superinten- 
dents should be, when practicable to obtain them, local 
men familiar with local conditions and requirements. 

Fifth : Grazing privileges on the reserves should be 
confined to stock owned by taxpayers and ranch owners 
in the State in which the reserve, upon which the 
grazing is sought, is located. 

I am satisfied that the inclination of the present 
officers of the Government in charge of the forest ser- 
vice is favorable to the granting of these several neces- 
sities of the grazing interests, and I believe now that 
a law has been enacted by Congress for consoli- 
dating the control of the reserves under the De- 
partment of Agriculture, the needs and necessities 
of stockmen in relation to forest reserves will receive 
earnest and impartial consideration. 



SHEEP GRAZING IN THE FOREST RE- 
SERVES FROM A LAYMAN'S 
STANDPOINT 

BY 
L H. PAMMEL 

Professor of Botany, Iowa College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts 

I HAVE been somewhat interested in forest matters 
for a good many years, not only from the stand- 
point of the subject of this article, but also from the 
Standpoint of a botanist. I have followed somewhat 
closely the range problems for fifteen years, and my 
work has brought me in contact with it from Texas to 
Montana. I have been deeply interested in this prob- 
lem, for the Iowa farmer needs to recuperate his stock 
for feeding purposes from the great arid regions of 
the West. No stock equals the western range animals 
for feeding purposes. It is, therefore, to the interests 
of the Mississippi Valley that good conditions shall be 
maintained on the Western ranges. I shall not stop 
to review the various interests concerned in connection 
with the forest reserves of the West. 

Four interests must be considered (i) grazing, (2) 
timber supplies, (3) irrigation, (4) mining. Each 
must be brought together in one harmonious whole. 
The breaking of any one of the links in the chain cannot 
but aflFect the others. During the early development 
of the West one interest only was the dominating one, 
that of mining. It was soon found that some lines 
of agricultural pursuits were needed to give stability 
to the country. Then came a conflict between the 
diflferent lines of agriculture — the irrigator, the sheep 



American Forest Congress 243 

herder, the cattleman, all seemed to be in irreparable 
conflict. Happily, however, through the efforts of 
Mr. Gifford Pinchot some of these matters are being 
settled in an amicable way. 

It has been my good fortune to have spent some 
time in the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado, Wy- 
oming, Utah, and Montana, partly to investigate some 
of these problems and partly as a layman to enjoy the 
benefits of the mountain air and to study the flora. 

What were some of the conditions in the great pas- 
ture fields of the Rocky Mountains and adjacent re- 
gions from 1897 to 1901 ? 

The cattlemen were dissatisfied because their ranges 
were more or less injured, the irrigator complained 
of lack of water. The sheepmen alone entered no 
general complaints except where the competition was 
too strong among themselves. The open ranges which 
had offered abundant opportunities at first became 
poorer and poorer and the sheep had to seek greener 
fields in the mountains during the summer. What 
was more natural than that they should make use of 
the forest reserves, where in small parks and meadows 
grew an abundance of nutritious grasses. When the 
permits were first given it was supposed that grazing 
would be confined to the parks and meadows. But the 
spirit of this regulation was probably never adhered to, 
since the competition among sheepmen was so strong 
that they had to seek all kinds of feed for fear of their 
flocks reaching the point of starvation in some cases. 
It was my privilege to examine three of the forest 
reserves, the Uintah, Big Horn, and Bitter Root. 

The Bitter Root forest reserve, in Montana, is a 
ragged range containing a large amount of timber 
and several important streams, the water of which is 
used to irrigate the fertile fields in Montana and Idaho. 



244 PrOCI^EJDINGS 0^ TH^ 

The timber in this region is somewhat different from 
that occurring in the Uintah Mountains. There are 
large bodies of murravana and pinus Yexilis. Spruces, 
balsam and the Douglas fir are found at different alti- 
tudes. This region is very different from the Uintah 
Mountains topographically. Sheep grazing has never 
been permitted here, and there are few parks. It is 
essentially a forest region. Let us first, therefore, con- 
sider the importance of the mountains in respect to the 
water supply for irrigation. 

No better natural reservoirs can be found anywhere 
in the Rocky Mountains than the many lakes located 
at the sources of the larger streams rising in the Uin- 
tah Mountains. In addition there are many basins 
or ancient glacial lakes that contain vegetation well 
adapted to hold the moisture and thus release it in 
the form of springs. The flow of water from these 
springs is regulated by the amount of water held in 
the soil or retained by the humble plants growing in 
forest, meadow, and park. Hundreds of these mead- 
ows occur in the reserve, their continuity being broken 
only by stretches of forest. A study of these mead- 
ows shows a large number of plants important in the 
conservation of moisture. Through decay these plants 
form a rich humus which, owing to the peculiar physi- 
cal conditions, undergo decomposition slowly. Hence 
this soil is highly retentive of moisture. 

The bogs always carry an abundance of moisture 
and the meadow, under natural conditions, generally 
contains water, but under overgrazing or the effects 
of forest fires the meadows are damaged to such an 
extent that the water during the summer months is 
continually diminishing. 

The present diminished water supply is due in part 
to injudicious grazing. Is the water supply less than 



American F'orejst Congress 245 

formerly? So gaugings of the streams have shown, 
as does the testimony of old settlers. Two factors 
have been important in bringing about these changed 
conditions. First, an unusually large part of the re- 
serve has been burned over. Prior to 1879 small 
patches had been burned over by the Indians and 
trappers. Large areas were burned by the Indians in 
1879. Since then there have been many destructive 
fires, burning many thousand acres. During the early 
settlement of the country some of these fires were 
started with the idea of making better grazing, but 
experience has taught owners of sheep and cattle that 
the burning of forests does not improve the range. 
Fires in this reserve, as elsewhere, are started care- 
lessly. Sheep herders have been given the credit for 
starting these fires, but I believe they should not be 
held responsible. More fires are started by hunting and 
fishing parties than by cattle and sheepmen. 

Bitter controversy has prevailed for years among 
cattle and sheepmen and those who use the water for 
irrigation purposes. The latter nearly always agree 
with the cattlemen in regard to the destructive work 
of the sheep in the reserve. In some cases the criti- 
cisms are justifiable. A few illustrations may be cited. 
During the winter of 1899- 1900 there was an unusually 
light fall of snow in the mountains with a light rain- 
fall in the summer of 1900. Forage was scarce, so 
short that the meadows at high altitudes were stripped 
of their plants, and the forests were denuded of 
their undergrowth as much as the meadows. Lower 
down in the reserves the valleys of all the streams 
looked like sheep trails with dust rising in clouds even 
in the woods. The sheep had to resort to willows, 
potentilla fruticosa, hetiila glandidosa, qiiercus, prunus 
demissa and aspen for their forage. These were 



246 Proceedings 01^ thk 

stripped of their foliage as high as the sheep could 
reach. The similar species wiere entirely denuded. 
Sheep are said not to graze on conifers, but in numer- 
ous cases the Engelmann spruce, Lodgepole pine, 
balsam, and Douglas fir were stripped of their foilage 
as high up as sheep could reach. In that year the 
grazing privilege was granted to 180,000 sheep, a 
number far in excess of what the conditions warranted. 
The number actually grazed was probably still larger. 
In 1901 and 1902 the conditions were very much im- 
proved. 

So many sheep in the reserve cannot help being 
injurious to the forest. The indiscriminate grazing in 
the burnt timber destroys the herbaceous plants and 
keeps the small shrubs in an enfeebled condition and 
thus prevents the renewal of the forest. 

In no case did I observe young pines where fires 
have occurred during the last eight or ten years. But 
in timber nearing maturity, and even mature timber, 
the injury was great. The herbaceous plants are in- 
jured to such an extent that reseeding is impossible. 
Seven years ago herbaceous plants were in abundance 
along all of the brooks. Now, however, they are con- 
fined to the headwaters of the streams and plentiful 
only just below timber line. Many valuable grasses 
were once abundant, but now have become rare be- 
cause the plants do not have a chance to reseed the 
ground since the roots are destroyed by tramping and 
close grazing. 

In order that sheep owners may have a longer lease 
of the forest reserve the suggestion has been made, 
by those who are interested in the sheep grazing ques- 
tion, that every sheep owner who receives the privilege 
from the Government should be compelled to reseed 
the ground with grass seed and let the grazing go on 



American Forest Congre:ss 247 

as before. This is not necessary. I believe under 
existing conditions it is practically impossible for grass 
or any other plant to get a good start. But given an 
opportunity the pasture and meadows will recover. 

After spending three seasons in this reserve, I am 
convinced more than ever that the number of sheep 
in it should be regulated by wise and judicious rules 
laid. down by the Department of Agriculture, subject 
to change as the Department may from time to time 
deem expedient, or entirely prohibited until the forest 
is in a better condition. The solution of the problem 
is a difficult one under the present conditions. Public 
opinion in Utah and Wyoming is decidedly in favor of 
unrestricted grazing privileges regardless of conse- 
quences. So long as the Government pursues the pres- 
ent policy in regard to the semi-arid lands so long will 
the question remain unsettled. In my opinion the 
leasing of the semi-arid lands for a term of years 
will help partly to solve the question for the forest 
reserves. The free use of our public domain for 
every one destroys the range to such an extent that the 
sheepmen are forced to use the forest areas. Free 
ranges should be abolished. 

In the Bitter Root forest reserve, although larger 
quantities of water are used than formerly, the water 
supply from the mountains is scarcely diminished so 
far as I have been able to learn. The most important 
factor in the Bitter Root forest reserve to be observed 
is that the young trees are coming up everywhere in 
great quantities. Grass and various herbaceous plants 
are abundant and thick. 

To make the forest reserve more effective, power 
should be given to the forest supervisor to open roads 
and trails. In the Uintah forest reserv^e there can be 
no doubt that the most important factor in diminishing 
the water supply is injudicious grazing. 



248 Proceedings o^ the 

Much forage of good value occurs in all of these 
reserves and from an impartial standpoint I am in- 
clined to the opinion this should be used but regulated 
in such a manner that forest trees will not suffer. To 
do this will require good officials, who will harmonize 
the various conflicting interests. I would respectfully 
urge the sentiments expressed by Mr. Pinchot and 
Dr. Roth in their several papers. 



GRAZING ON PUBLIC LANDS OF CANADA 

{Impromptu Address) 

BY 
R. H. CAMPBELL 

Secretary, Canadian Forestry Association 

T DO not respond to the call for Western men, but 
am very glad that the discussion has been brought 
back again to Western conditions, because I am con- 
nected with the Department of the Interior of Canada, 
which has the management of the Western lands and 
deals with the problems which have been specially 
brought before the Congress this afternoon, and I 
thought a statement of the method that has been 
adopted by us in dealing with the Western grazing 
interest might perhaps be of some interest to the Con- 
gress. The problem has not become an acute one with 
us in connection with the forest reservations. The 
grazing has not injured them seriously, and we have 
not developed the management of the forest reserves 
to such an extent that we have given much attention 
to that subject. Another reason why the grazing in 
the forest reserves has not been a very pressing subject 
is the fact that there are no sheep grazed in close 
proximity to the reserves or within them, and as the 
chief objection has been made to the grazing of sheep 
in the reserves on your side of the boundary, I think 
it is from that the problem has largely arisen. In the 
lands outside of the reserves we have been following 
for a number of years a leasing system. We have not 
laid down the principle, which apparently has been 
laid down in your administration, that the range is 
free to any man who wishes to make use of it ; in fact, 
we lay down the principle, in the first place, that no 
person has the right to make use of the public land 



250 Proceedings of the 

for grazing purposes without special permission from 
the Minister of the Interior, and then we go on and 
define the rules by which he may be allowed to make 
use of that land for. grazing. The regulation that has 
been followed for a number of years is that leases for 
a period of twenty-one years may be granted for an 
area not to exceed 100,000 acres. The rental asked 
for this lease is two cents per acre. A number of 
leases have been taken up under this system which have 
brought in a fair amount of revenue to the Govern- 
ment. Recently the large influx into and settlement of 
our West has raised the question of the management 
of the grazing lands to an important position and made 
it a more acute one. When grazing leases were first 
adopted a feeling arose between those holding leases 
and some of the settlers who wished to go in on these 
leaseholds. The Government then decided, in conse- 
quence of the agitation that so arose, to cancel these 
leaseholds, allowing the holders to purchase one-tenth 
of the area and thereafter granted leases only subject 
to a homestead entry. That policy was followed for 
some time, and then later a number of leases were 
granted without the provision that homestead entry 
should be granted within them. Considerable objec- 
tion was made, and it was finally decided to suspend 
further action until the matter could be given full con- 
sideration. It has been under consideration for some 
time past, and although I am not in a position yet to 
say fully what will be finally decided, I think that the 
decision will be that we will stick to the leasing sys- 
tem. We have found it to work out with a fair degree 
of satisfaction, and I think that the fact of giving the 
leaseholder a proprietary right to a certain extent will 
make him careful to see that the land of which he has 
control is not overgrazed and is kept in proper condi- 
tion for all the time that it is held under lease by him. 



PARTY 



RAILROADS IN RELATION TO THE 
FOREST 



WHAT INFORMATION IS MOST URG- 
ENTLY NEEDED BY RAILROADS RE- 
GARDING TIMBER RESOURCES 

BY 

GENERAL CHARLES F. MANDERSON 

General Solicitor, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company 

A SHORT time before the year i860 there crossed 
^^ the Missouri River, on the Hne of latitude of 
the most progressive development and most intelligent 
progress, to make a home in the then Territory of 
Nebraska, a young man, who joined to physical 
strength and virile force a keen appreciation of the 
needs of the future and a determination of purpose 
only equalled by the intelligence which guided that 
purpose, and the abounding faith that led to the desired 
result. Settling upon broad acres of virgin soil, he 
found himself in a treeless region, on the eastern edge 
of what the geographers of the day were pleased to 
call the Great American Desert. He was one of the 
leaders of that hardy band of men by whose aggressive 
power that desert land, the range of the wild buffalo 
and the hunting ground of the wilder Indian, was to be 
developed into an agricultural garden, whose products 
in a single year, in less than fifty years of development, 
were to very nearly equal in value the annual output 
of all the gold and silver producing mines of the world. 
For had this pioneer lived to 1904 he would have seen 
from the yield of the fields of vast extent of corn and 
small grain, from the domestic animals ready for the 
world's market, a product valued at $500,000,000, or 
over three times the value of all the gold and silver 



254 Proc^e:dings O^ TH^ 

produced that year in the United States. 

The youth who thus settled, less than half a century 
ago, near the banks of the turbid and oft times turbu- 
lent Missouri, looked about him with sorrowful and, I 
fear, regretful gaze. On all that broad expanse of un- 
dulation no tree to gladden the sight, no shade to offer 
its restful protection to contemplative man or reminat- 
ing beast. He called to mind the groves of his native 
state; he thought of the spreading oaks, the leafy 
maples, and the stately pines of Michigan, and probably 
from the longing homesickness there came the inspira- 
tion that ripened into the motto of his life: "Plant 
trees." From that inspiring thought came a transfor- 
mation delightful to contemplate. Standing now on 
the eminence where he built his home, on every side 
are to be seen the sylvan evidences of his industry and 
foresight. Lofty trees, many of them true monarchs 
of the forest, wave their graceful tops as the wind 
makes music in the branches, singing ever a grateful 
requiem to the builder of Arbor Lodge. The example 
he set has not been lost. Groves innumerable now dot 
the landscape, once so bare. Countless millions of 
trees have been planted as a result of his persistent 
inculcation of the benefits of tree-planting, and in every 
State and Territory of the United States, except Dela- 
ware and the Indian Territory, by legislative enactment 
or executive proclamation one day in each year is set 
apart as a legal holiday in which the people are 
encouraged to plant trees. It is a monument to his 
memory more enduring than marble, more lasting than 
brass. 

Need I give the name of the founder of Arbor Day 
to you — lovers of trees that you are? The names of 
J. Sterling Morton and James Wilson are indissolubly 
linked together in the annals of forest development. 
May their tribes increase ! 



American Fore:st Congre:ss 255 

The President is quoted as saying that the forest 
question is the most vital internal problem in the 
United States. It is truly so, and we are here assem- 
bled to give increased vitality to the movement to 
substitute saving for losing, preservation for assassi- 
nation, creation for destruction, birth for death. We 
are here to say to the servants of the people that as 
compared with the reforming or the deforming of the 
tariff and its schedules, the extinction or the encour- 
agement of trade combinations, the regulation or the 
demoralization of interstate transportation — all ques- 
tions of importance, we admit — the problem of how we 
shall conserve the timber production of the country is 
the paramount issue. By its conservation we are pre- 
served; by its destruction we perish. The suggestions 
as to the best methods of preserving what we have and 
adding to our store are for you who are experts, and 
not for me, a mere tyro, to give. 

My duty at the moment is to show briefly the needs 
of the railroads as to timber resources. I might spend 
time in showing the relation that railroad transporta- 
tion bears to every industry, and that under the 
methods of modern civilization not one could be suc- 
cessfully maintained without it; but this would insult 
your intelligence. The needs of railroads can, how- 
ever, very profitably be called to your attention. There 
are in the United States 206,885.99 miles of main 
tracks, 79,376.03 miles of second tracks and sidings, 
being a total mileage of 286,262.02. The vast number 
of trees needed to be felled to maintain this tremendous 
mileage is so enormous as to stagger belief and exhaust 
a reasonable amount of figures. The timber goes 
mainly into ties, bridges, station houses, road crossings, 
rolling stock, platforms, furniture, and also into many 
minor uses. Wherever used there comes to it depre- 



256 Proce:kdings of the: 

ciation and decay, demanding renewal and replacement. 
Let us consider the matter of ties alone, for that will 
serve as a fair parallel to all other uses for railroad 
purposes. The average number of ties to the mile of 
tracks is 3,000 ; so that 858,786,000 ties have gone into 
the construction of the tracks. The probable average 
life of an oak tie is ten years. Pine ties naturally last 
from four to six years, and when burnetized, creosoted 
or otherwise treated their average life is probably 
extended to ten years. It will, therefore, be seen that 
10 per cent of the ties now in track must be renewed 
annually, making a yearly demand for replacement of 
nearly 90,000,000 and in a decade 900,000,000. The 
average price of oak ties is 55 cents, and of pine ties 
38 cents each. Treating for prolongation of life adds 
JO cents to the cost of each tie. The average cost of 
all ties now going into the trackage of the railroads 
of the United States is 50 cents apiece, making an 
annual expenditure of $45,000,000, and $450,000,000 
every ten years; and this calculation of cost does not 
include the labor of placing the ties in the track or 
the expense of local transportation. Nor does it take 
into account the gradual but inevitable increase in price 
as the supply lessens, the demand incident to the build- 
ing of the new lines of road absolutely demanded by 
the ever-advancing commerce of the country, both 
intra and interstate, and the necessary supply of street 
car lines, both horse and electric; elevated railways, 
subways, and mine tracks. The demands of these 
corporations are enormous, and constantly increasing. 
Add to these requirements the many others caused by 
the uses heretofore briefly referred to and some con- 
ception can be had of how capacious is the maw of 
the great transportation lines of the republic, upon 
whose successful and steady maintenance all industries 



American Fori:st Congress 257 

depend. It may be better that I should state that they 
are interdependent, for without these industries rail- 
roads could not thrive, and without the railroads the 
industries could not survive, and to maintain both 
industries and railroads the timber and lumber product 
of the forests is the prime factor and absolute neces- 
sity. 

This much for the needs. What of the supply for 
the needs, the satisfaction of these wants? It is not 
only the preservation by judicious forestry and intel- 
ligent lumbering of the store we have, but the planting 
and husbanding, wherever trees can be induced to 
grow, of new forests. To this end there must be the 
arousing of public sentiment, so that in every state 
and in the nation there shall be taught the lesson that 
will lead to legislation encouraging timber growth. 
The labor must not only be one of love, but one of 
duty. We should rejoice in the fact that in this move- 
ment, fraught with so much of good to the republic, 
sentimentalism joins hands with commercialism. 

"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods," but 
there is profit as well. It is difficult, I know, to deter- 
mine to sow where we cannot reap. The man who 
plants trees works not for himself but for posterity; 
but we should remember that with almost criminal 
recklessness and censurable disregard of the rights of 
the future we have destroyed that which a decent 
regard for the race should have prompted us to pre- 
serve for those who shall come after us, and certainly 
from that standpoint we owe much to posterity. 

The legislation of Congress from 181 7, when the 
first timber preservative act was passed to save live oak 
and red cedar for naval purposes, to this time has not 
been marked by great wisdom. It is to be hoped that 
there may speedily come a repeal of the Timber and 



258 Prockkdings of the: 

Stone Act, as recommended by the American Forestry 
Association, and I submit that in view of the evident 
necessities of the railroads of the west, building pioneer 
lines, that form the vanguard of civilization, that under 
the judicious cutting of timber on government lands, 
by carrying out the natural rule of the survival of the 
fittest, the requirement that the resulting product can- 
not be exported from the district or state wherein it is 
cut may well be repealed and be used wherever upon 
such railroads the necessity for its use is apparent. 
The popular demand is that the rates of freight, so 
greatly reduced during the past few years, should 
receive still further reduction. This can be obtained 
only by economy in construction and maintenance, and 
every measure that tends to that result should receive 
encouragement. 

We of the West are watching with concern the inter- 
esting experiment of that admirable Chief Forester 
Pinchot in the planting of pine cones and young pines 
in our sandhill country. If this otherwise useless land 
can be made to grow merchantable pine it will have 
justified its hitherto useless existence. 

The experiments of the Government, of the railroads, 
and of private parties in prolonging the life of timber 
are of great importance. The saving of the forests, if 
the life of a tie can be prolonged, will be very great, 
for as yet no substitute has been devised for wood ties 
that is either economical or desirable. They maintain 
the alignment of the railroad, so essential to safety, 
better than any metal substitute and give an elasticity 
to the roadbed most important for the preservation and 
maintenance of the rolling stock. With metal ties, or 
a stone base, the rails would be speedily injured, and 
the heavy Mogul engines used to-day, drawing the 
heavy trains of large cars needed for the traffic, would 



American Forest Congress 259 

pound themselves quickly into decrepitude and useless- 
ness. The change in the character of rolling stock is 
worthy of consideration. Engines have increased in 
weight from twenty-five to one hundred and ten tons; 
freight cars of twenty-eight feet length, with twenty 
thousand pounds carrying capacity, have increased to 
forty feet of length with one hundred thousand pounds 
capacity. 

But why prolong the wondrous tale of development 
and progress ? We have reached the point from which 
we must yet advance or retrograde. We cannot stand 
still. We are considering the main element of that 
hoped-for progress. Let us take lessons from the 
nations across the great water. From Germany, 
Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland let us learn how to 
establish schools of forestry, how to eliminate waste 
and mismanagement, and to subrogate private rights 
to public necessity. From Bohemia let us learn how 
to furnish fuel and building material for a dense popu- 
lation and yet retain the area of the primeval forests 
and add thereto. Let us learn wherever there is a 
teacher, for there is no lesson more essential to our 
welfare. Let us adopt the motto of the pioneer 
Morton and under state and federal guidance and 
direction "plant trees." 



WORK OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RAIL- 
ROAD IN PLANTING TIMBER 
FOR CROSS TIES 

BY 

JOSEPH T. RICHARDS 

Chief Engineer, Maintenance of Way, Pennsylvania Railroad System. 

I T has been largely through the instrumentality of the 
American Forestry Association that the railroad 
companies of the United States have been brought to 
realize the gravity of the situation with reference to 
a future timber supply, from which is to be furnished 
the large quantity consumed by the railroads in the 
production of cross ties. The rapid spoliation of our 
forests — the sole source of our supply — and the immi- 
nence of its entire depletion, are only too strongly 
presented to us by those familiar with the subject. It 
would take more time than I have at my disposal to 
obtain statistics to cover the entire field of timber 
consumption in the United States, or to make any 
reliable computation of the amount of timber still 
standing, and available for future supply; but a few 
figures illustrative of the general character may be of 
interest as an introduction to what more particularly 
concerns the Pennsylvania Railroad System. 

During the past year the Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company has had the subject considered and a report 
made by a committee of our transportation association, 
and I will draw from this report some data for my 
remarks to-day. The number of cross ties in use on 
the railroads of the United States is estimated to be 
about 620,000,000; the number used annually for 
repairs, and for extensions of track, is estimated to be 



Ame:rican Forest Congress 261 

from 90,ooo,cx)0 to 110,000,000, requiring, we may 
say, the entire product of 200,000 acres of woodland 
annually. 

Each year the timber from which these are manu- 
factured is farther from the base of transportation, 
and many of the former sources of supply have already 
been entirely exhausted. Our Pennsylvania railroads 
now look chiefly to inland Virginia, West Virginia, 
and Kentucky for their white oak ties ; and the longleaf 
yellow pine of the southern states will soon disappear. 
Probably another decade may nearly close these 
sources of supply. 

The annual consumption of ties on the Pennsylvania 
Railroad System east of Pittsburg and Erie, for repairs 
only, is about 3,000,000, this being about the average 
quantity used every year for repairs in the past ten 
years. To this should be added, say, one-half million 
used annually in new work. It is evident, therefore, 
that at the present rate of consumption the available 
supply of the present timbers used, especially white 
oak and yellow pine, will be exhausted to a serious 
degree before many years, and the time is now ripe 
for the railroads to consider the question of what 
course they are to pursue in the future. 

Under these conditions there are obviously two 
courses : First, the reduction of the amount consumed, 
which can be done by the substitution of other material 
for wood, and by the use of preservative methods for 
prolonging the life of the ties, and which by increasing 
its durability will diminish the annual requirements 
for renewals ; and, second, by the adoption of forestry 
methods having for their purpose the proper care and 
management of the forests still remaining, and the 
cultivation of new tree plantations. 

It is to the latter to which I will chiefly confine my 



2.62 Proce:^dings of th^ 

remarks in connection with this all-important subject. 
The question of forest preservation and perpetuation 
is beginning to receive attention in this country 
through the several State Bureaus of Forestry which 
have been established, and attention is given to forest 
preservation by these, as well as by the National 
Government. The National Government has estab- 
lished a Bureau of Forestry, which is doing valuable 
work in the dissemination of useful information 
and by creating a popular sentiment in favor of 
the subject, and its cooperation with railroad compa- 
nies and lumber industries in the introduction of proper 
methods for the preservation and perpetuation of the 
timber supply of the country. 

The necessity or advisability of a railroad taking an 
active part in forestry operations, looking especially 
towards its future supply of cross ties for its own use, 
is comparatively a new idea. As long as twenty-four 
or twenty-five years ago, on the Pennsylvania lines 
west of Pittsburg, attention was already given to the 
subject, and a number of catalpa trees were planted 
along the right-of-way of one of its lines; but the 
results obtained were unsatisfactory. More recently, 
the cultivation of the yellow locust as a tie timber has 
been brought to our attention, and the cultivation of 
this tree to a limited extent for the purposes named 
has been undertaken. 

Within the past two years we have begun the plant- 
ing of yellow locust trees on an extensive scale on 
property owned by the company. The trees thus 
planted are seedlings two or three years old, and cost, 
including labor of planting, about eight cents each. 
Generally speaking, these are planted ten feet apart, 
thus averaging about 400 to the acre ; although in the 
fall of 1904 we planted 54,871 trees six feet apart and 
88,127 trees eight feet apart. 



American Forejst Congress 263 

The total quantity planted to date is as follows : 

Fall of 1902 at Totals. 

Newton Hamilton, 13,610 13,610 

Fall of 1903 at 

Conewago, 43.364 43.364 

Spring of 1904 at 

Conewago, 25,096 

Pomeroy, 20,280 

West of Atglen, 16,537 

Atglen, 8,108 

70,021 

Fall of 1904 at 

Juniata Bridge, 20,730 

Newport, 29,505 

Vintage, 50,300 

Atglen & Susquehanna Branch, 

P. R. R., 53.000 

153.535 



Total, 280,530 

All of the above places are in the State of Pennsyl- 
vania. During the coming year we expect to plant 
about 800,000 trees additional, likely 200,000 in the 
spring and 600,000 in the fall. The land on which we 
planted these trees, except a tract of fourteen acres at 
Newton Hamilton, which was purchased for this par- 
ticular purpose, are lands which the company has 
owned for some time and which were acquired in 
connection with old or new lines. 

There is probably no other timber which combines 
so well the qualities of durability and hardness as does 
the yellow locust. Evidences of its longevity in use 
as tie timber are frequent on our road. The resistance 
of locust timber to cutting under the rail is said to 
exceed that of white oak, and it has been demonstrated 



264 Proceedings oe the 

upon our main lines that it is not so much the decay of 
the timber as it is the cutting in by the rail which wears 
out or decreases the life of the tie. The average life 
of a white oak tie is about ten years ; we expect to get 
additional life out of a locust. The main attention 
which this class of timber seems to require during 
growth is that of pruning the lower branches of the 
young trees, ploughing and harrowing the ground in 
which they are planted, and keeping the weeds down 
as far as possible. 

While it is not likely that the Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company will at any time undertake to plant a suffi- 
cient number of trees from which to secure its entire 
supply of cross ties, we feel that the experiment made 
by it of raising its own tie timber will have a tendency 
to stimulate outside parties, who are small owners of 
property, to cultivate this class of timber, and in this 
way assist the railroad company in the vicinity in 
which they are located by furnishing cross ties at some 
future time. 

In order to supply our entire needs for the year, 
namely, 3,000,000 for repairs and half a million for 
new work, and adding thereto 10 per cent for the 
immediate future increase, making the total annual 
requirements 3,850,000 ties, we figure that, three ties 
to a tree, would require about 1,300,000 trees each year 
to produce the probable number of ties needed. To 
produce the necessary number of trees of the proper 
size for tie-cutting each year, in order to harvest the 
3,850,000 ties (figuring that it will require thirty years 
for a yellow locust tree to mature), would require a 
continuous growth of 39,000,000 trees, 1,300,000 to be 
planted each year, which, if planted ten feet apart, or 
about 400 trees to the acre, would entail the continuous 
use of 97,500 acres, or 152 square miles of ground, for 
the purpose. 



IS IT PRACTICABLE FOR RAILROADS 

TO HOLD FOREST LANDS FOR 

FUTURE SUPPLIES OF TIMBER? 

BY 

L. E. JOHNSON 

President, The Norfolk and Western Railway 

I CAN but express my appreciation at being requested 
to present a subject for the consideration of this 
Forest Congress, and being asked to answer the ques- 
tion: "Is It Practicable for Railroads to Hold Forest 
Lands for Future Supplies of Timber?" 

We find that it is one that can be discussed from 
the standpoint of railroads, and while the question 
from this standpoint is an important one, is it not a 
question, by reason of its relation to the public at large, 
in every industry and occupation, and in the individual 
and domestic needs of every citizen, from the stand- 
point of the public at large ? 

The preservation of forests is not only necessary for 
supplying railroads with cross ties, with timber for its 
trestles and cars, but is necessary to maintain the supply 
of wood for the various manufacturing, building and 
domestic purposes of the public. It is equally, if not 
more, necessary to maintain and protect the water 
supply in streams, the demands on which are increasing 
by reason of an increasing population, and by reason 
of the rapidly multiplying requirements for power in 
its many forms. And it is equally necessary to pre- 
serve our forests, to prevent floods, and to prevent 
droughts. 

All this is well put in the definition of what forestry 



266 Proce:i:dings of the: 

is by one of the gentlemen connected with the Bureau 
of Forestry, in his article in a late Encyclopedia. I 
refer to the article by Mr. Gifford Pinchot, "Forestry 
in the United States," Encyclopedia American, Vol. 
VII, where he defines the subject as covering this 
broad ground: 

"Forestry is the art of using the forests continuously 
to meet the needs of men. In the United States for- 
estry has to do principally with the supply of wood for 
various purposes, with the maintenance of water-flow 
in streams, with the prevention of floods and with the 
supply of foliage for grazing animals within the forests. 
Nowhere else are forest problems of more vital impor- 
tance to the welfare of the people than here, and in no 
other country of civilization has so little progress been 
made in their solution. This condition follows natu- 
rally from the vast area of the United States, its 
comparatively sparse population per square mile, and 
from the nature, location, and extent of the forests 
themselves." 

Referring to the same authority, "Some Uses of 
Wood:" "The yearly product of wood in the United 
States is about 35,000,000,000 feet. In 1900 the 
lumber industry employed two hundred and eighty- 
three thousand two hundred and sixty (283,260) wage 
earners, to whom it paid one hundred and four million 
six hundred and forty thousand five hundred and 
ninety-one dollars ($104,640,591). The perpetuation 
of this industry is of vital concern to all the people. 
Its ramifications are as wide as the industrial life of 
the nation, and its perpetuation is a most pressing 
concern of the forester. The use of wood for the 
maintenance of railroad tracks, for example, rises to 
about 120,000,000 ties a year, together with the vast 
amounts of bridge timber, piling, etc. Since the use 



American Forest Congress 267 

of metal ties is believed to be impracticable by Ameri- 
can railroad engineers, the maintenance of the supply 
of wood and ties is of vital importance to the railroads, 
and through them to the nation at large. In a similar 
way, the permanence and success of the mining 
industry is dependent upon cheap and accessible 
supplies of timber. In most portions of the West such 
supplies can be expected only from the national forest 
reserves. In the creation of the reserves, therefore, 
the special needs of the mining and other industries 
have been kept carefully, and it is also believed suc- 
cessfully, in mind." 

Without regard, therefore, for the necessity of 
preserving our forests for the other purposes equally 
important to the country, as the means of supply of 
wood for industrial and domestic purposes, it would 
appear that railroads, although they are consumers of 
an enormous amount of wood, their uses of wood form 
but a fraction — relatively a small fraction — of the 
yearly consumption of wood. I will, therefore, under- 
take to discuss some of the details from my personal 
knowledge of a railroad extending from tidewater 
on the east to points in Ohio to the northwest, and 
through Virginia to the southwest, embracing lines 
into Maryland and North Carolina, in addition to 
other lateral lines within reasonable limits of timber 
for its entire distance. 

Originally the country passed through by the railroad 
to which I refer, was well timbered. The first exten- 
sive depletion of timber land was on the first hundred 
miles adjacent to the seaboard, where the original 
timber was cypress and Virginia or loblolly pine. Up 
to the year 1888 this road used a great many cypress 
ties, but such timber is no longer procurable. The 
second growth of Virginia loblolly pine in this same 



268 Proceedings o^ the 

district is very knotty, and, further, it is not suitable 
for cross ties until it be treated to improve its lasting 
qualities. All the balance of the road is in territory 
where both white oak and chestnut oak is indigenous, 
and up to quite recently all the cross ties that have been 
needed have been obtained within moderate hauling 
distance from the railroad line. 

The class of ties that have been obtained to date 
have been of a high grade. After a time of careful 
watching extending over a period of twenty years, it 
has been found that the life of these white oak and 
chestnut oak ties has averaged about nine years. 

This railroad is, therefore, a road presenting prob- 
lems that are common to many other roads, and the 
above question can be, in part, answered by using it 
as a typical case. 

At the present time the main line is 1,543 miles; 
branches, 226; second track, 150; sidings, 652; total 
mileage, 2,571. The average requirements in oak ties 
per year for renewals are three-hundred and ten (310) 
per mile, aggregating in round numbers eight hundred 
thousand (800,000) per year. At prevailing prices 
eight hundred thousand (800,000) ties cost per annum 
about three hundred and fifteen thousand dollars 
($315,000), which is shown to be about fifteen per cent. 
(15) over the cost of a like number ten years ago. 
This total figure is far below what some railroads less 
fortunately situated must pay for a like number. 

Both chestnut and oak timber is of such slow growth 
that we cannot for a moment consider the attempt to 
cultivate it for tie timber. While oak will naturally 
grow for the whole length of this and other railroads, 
largely by self-sowing, if the soil is left idle, we cannot 
count on that method to secure timber for many years 
to come in view of the great expansion in lumber 
industries adjacent to railroads. 



Ame:rICAN FoREiST CONGREJSS 269 

According to our information, the only tree that 
has a comparatively rapid growth and which will, 
according to the best evidence obtainable, furnish a 
first-class cross tie of long life, is the catalpa. It is 
claimed that this tree will, in twenty years, make ties 
that will last fifteen years in track. However, the 
timber is soft as compared with oak, and will, of 
necessity, require tie-plates. 

Assuming the life of a catalpa cross tie as being 
fifteen years, the requirements per mile per year for 
renewals would be about 200, making the requirements 
for the present mileage of the road under consideration, 
allowing for emergencies, about six hundred thousand 
(600,000) catalpa ties per annum. 

Let us now consider the question of cultivating 
catalpa trees for cross ties. We find that one acre of 
standing catalpa trees will produce, when twenty years 
of age, eight hundred and fifty (850) cross ties. There- 
fore, in order to secure six hundred thousand (600,000) 
cross ties per annum, about seven hundred (700) acres 
of land bearing catalpa trees twenty years old will be 
required each year; hence, there should be planted 
every year, for the requirements of the railroad, having 
a mileage of two-thousand five hundred and seventy- 
one mile (2,571), seven hundred (700) acres of trees, 
and this planting must be continued for a period of 
twenty years before any cross ties can be secured. As 
we are to plant seven hundred (700) acres each year 
during the twenty years, we must plant a total of 
fourteen thousand (14,000) acres, or, allowing for 
some waste land, about fifteen thousand (15,000) acres 
must be secured. Such a large body of land as this 
cannot be obtained unless it be in districts where there 
are at present comparatively large bodies of waste or 
cheap land. There is no point on this railroad where 



270 Proceedings oi^ the 

such a tract of land can possibly be secured unless it 
be near tidewater. 

We, therefore, estimate the cost of establishing such 
a timber reservation on the line of this road would be 
as follows: 

15,000 acres of land at $10 $150,000 

Interest on this for 19 years up to 

cutting time at 5 per cent 142,500 

Total cost for land $292,500 

Annual expenditure for nineteen years before any 
growth is obtained suitable for ties : 

Taxes $1,500 

Clearing, draining, &c., 700 acres 

at $15 10,500 

470 trees delivered at $10 per M . . . 4,700 

Planting 700 acres at $5 per acre. . 3,500 

Superintendence, &c., 1,800 

Total annual cost $22,000 



This annual charge of $22,000 for 

nineteen years aggregates .... $418,000 

Interest on this amount for an aver- 
age term of gy^ years at 5 per 
cent 198,550 

Cost of land as above 150,000 

Interest on cost of land, 19 years, 

as above, at 5 per cent 142,500 

Totalinvestmentupto 20th year $909,050 



% 



American Forest Congress 271 

Annual expenditure after the twentieth year and 
each year thereafter: 

Interest on investment, $909,050, at 

5 per cent $45452 

Taxes 1 ,500 

Reclearing, &c., 700 acres at $5 .... 3,500 

470,000 trees deHvered, at $10 per M. 4,700 

Planting 700 trees at $5 per acre. . . 3,500 

Superintendence, &c 1,800 

Annual cost $60,452 

Cutting and delivering 600,000 
catalpa ties f. o. b. cars at 
20c $120,000.00 

Annual cost of ties after 20 years. 180,452.50 

It should be noted that twenty years hence, at the 
present rate of increase in the cost of oak ties, the 
cross ties necessary for the railroad in question will 
cost an aggregate of four hundred thousand dollars 
($400,000) in the twentieth year. The saving through 
this transaction would, therefore, be, per annum, after 
the twentieth year, four hundred thousand dollars 
($400,000) less one hundred and eighty thousand four 
hundred and fifty-two dollars and fifty cents ($180,- 
452.50), equal to two hundred and nineteen thousand 
five hundred and forty-seven dollars and fifty cents 
($219,547.50). 

The above great difference in figures would indicate 
an enormous saving possible by railroad companies 
undertaking to hold large areas of land, either directly 
or indirectly, to cultivate tie timber alone. And while 
it was possible a number of years ago for railroad 
companies to hold large tracts of land, laws do not 



2']2 PrOCEB:DINGS 01^ THK 

give them the right to condemn lands for cultivating 
timber. Therefore, unless railroad companies have a 
right to condemn land for such purposes, such large 
tracts as are required cannot be obtained at prices such 
as warrant the above estimate. It is evident that some 
modification of the existing laws would be necessary 
in order to render it practicable for railroads to hold 
large tracts of land for future supplies of timber. 

Further, the investment of one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars ($150,00) in land, and an added 
investment each year for a period of nineteen years, 
until a total of nine hundred thousand dollars 
($900,000) is reached, will require a special arrange- 
ment on the part of railroad companies in order to 
look forward to the holding of various lands for such 
a long period of time. It might be claimed that land 
could be bought only seven hundred (700) acres at 
a time. If this plan should be followed, the prices 
would be advanced by the very improvements under- 
taken by the railroad company. The only practicable 
plan of procedure would be to purchase at the begin- 
ning of the undertaking all the land required by a 
railroad company. 

Right here let me repeat that the above calculations 
are based upon estimates made for a certain railroad; 
however, they may form a basis for like calculations 
on any railroad in any section of our country, taking 
into consideration the environments and conditions. 
In the above figures no account has been taken of the 
danger and loss from fires, but the item of superin- 
tendence is included ; and further, an item of profit in 
the way of securing posts and other timber has not 
been credited simply with a view of making an estimate 
that would be safe to cover ordinary emergencies. 

I have in these estimates only considered one thing, 



American Forest Congress 273 

namely : ties, for the reason that the use of timber for 
other purposes in railroad work is rapidly being substi- 
tuted by steel, brick, stone, and concrete. The above 
presentation apparently shows a saving to the railroad 
company to be great and advantageous. On the other 
hand, the time required to secure the growth, changes 
in railroad methods, increase in length of railroad 
through construction, or decrease through sales, and 
the possible future improvement in the form of con- 
struction of standard track, throws at once grave 
doubts upon the advisability of any such plan. These 
doubts lead me to the conclusion that it is not practi- 
cable for railroads to hold forest lands for a future 
supply of timber, but that it is a question of such 
magnitude that it can best be handled by the investment 
of private capital, or under the Bureau of Forestry of 
the United States Government, in connection with 
appropriate legislation by the State Governments. 

While railroads can and should cooperate heartily 
in every way to preserve our forests from waste and 
destruction, I am forced to the conclusion that no 
practical results can be obtained without legislation 
putting the entire subject with Government control. 
The subject is one of such magnitude, affecting 
directly and indirectly the needs of every citizen and 
every community of our country, that any scheme that 
may be adopted must be comprehensive enough to con- 
serve all interests and accomplish definite results. 

Legislation is required to enable forests lands to be 
acquired or reserved at the headwaters of streams and 
in other suitable locations. 

Laws must be enacted to require the citizens to plant 
and maintain timber under appropriate circumstances. 

Laws must be enacted and enforced to prevent fires 
and the unnecessary destruction of trees. 



274 Proce:e:dings o^ th^ 

Legislation, too, should be provided to restrict the 
use of timber as much as possible for the use of our 
own citizens. 

The waste of timber should be prevented to the 
extent practicable by proper laws. 

And all such laws should, in order to be effective, 
be administered by officials invested with the authority 
of law. 

It would further appear that the large commercial 
demands consequent upon the great growth of our 
country, together with the immense quantities of the 
very best grades of timber which are exported, consti- 
tute a greater menace to our forests than the consump- 
tion by railway companies. 

In this connection, I would like to mention a large 
quantity of chestnut oak which is felled every spring 
to procure bark for tanning purposes, much of which 
is allowed to lie in the woods and rot, although rail- 
road companies, and I presume others, would be glad 
to get the material, sawed into merchantable lumber, 
or have it made into ties. This constitutes a great 
and wanton waste. We think that we are fully able 
to verify this statement from the frequency with which 
we have to decline ties made from timber which has 
been felled in years other than the current year. 

In considering this timber question in any of its 
aspects, we recognize that the study of it, together 
with a great many other questions of like import, 
marks a new era in the affairs of this country. 

Heretofore the American people have been wasteful, 
and extravagant to an alarming degree, of every 
product and everything which have been generally used 
for the necessities and comfort of the people. Nature 
has been prodigal in distributing natural resources 
through our land, and for years we have been simply 



Ame:rican F'orest Congre:ss 275 

drawing upon these accumulated resources without 
stint and without regard for the future. Our popula- 
tion now is becoming so congested and the demands 
upon the resources of the country are so great that it 
is necessary for intelligent and conservative people to 
study the forestry question and other like propositions, 
to the end that the natural wealth of the country shall 
not be wasted to such an extent that the conditions of 
living by our people shall become more difficult. I 
know of no single question that is entitled to more 
consideration, by persons influencing large corpora- 
tions, than the timber and forestry question. 

Such meetings as the one now being held in Wash- 
ington will necessarily result in great good in that 
they will bring to the attention of large numbers of 
people, and especially people of character and influence, 
conditions which otherwise might be overlooked or be 
passed unnoticed. 



RESULTS IN THE PRESERVATIVE 
TREATMENT OF RAILROAD TIM- 
BERS TO PROLONG DURABILITY 

BY 

Dr. HERMANN von SCHRENK 

Bureau of Plant Industry 



I N a discussion of the railroads in their relation to 
the forest there is no topic which is at this day of 
such importance as timber preservation. We have 
heard that there is pi-obably no one interest in this 
country to-day which can compare with the railroad as 
a timber consumer, and certainly there is none which 
has a more direct and vital interest in seeing that a 
definite and constant supply of all kinds of timber is 
assured in the future. It is my privilege to point out 
in a few words what bearing the chemical preservation 
of wood, with its attendant features, has upon the 
general problem of future supply, and to what extent 
the results obtained therefrom may lead to a more 
economical utilization of forest supplies in general. 

In dealing with this subject I propose to consider 
briefly the following points: 

1. Why railroads in their capacity as consumers of 
timber are interested in preservation. 

2. Why railroads are interested in preservation from 
a traffic standpoint. 

3. Why railroads are interested in timber preserva- 
tion from the standpoint of economy. 

4. What preservation means. 

5. What results have been obtained. 

6. Some general conclusions. : 



American Fordst Congre:ss ^y'j 

Up to within recent times most of the tie and con- 
struction timbers used by the railroads were timbers 
hke the white oak and longleaf yellow pine. These 
were used because they combined great durability with 
strength and good wearing qualities. They were 
abundant along the lines of the roads and were obtain- 
able in large quantities and at a comparatively low cost. 
A purchasing agent had no difficulty, not more than 
ten years ago, in getting any number of first-class white 
oak ties in the middle or central states at from 35 to 60 
cents. While the prices for such timbers are not yet 
excessive owing to local supplies, it is, nevertheless, 
becoming increasingly difficult to obtain large regular 
supplies of such timbers, and with an ever-increasing 
demand,, the question has been asked for several years, 
and with increasing anxiety, where the tie supply is to 
come from in the future. It may not be without inter- 
est to state here that, according to a recent estimate 
made, about 118,000,000 ties were used for renewal 
purposes during 1904. 

As a result of the uncertainty in getting a sufficient 
number of ties which could be used in the natural 
condition, many roads turned toward the so-called 
inferior woods, like red and water oaks, beech, gum, 
the softer pines, hemlock, etc. None of these woods 
can be used without preservation, because they decay 
with great rapidity when in contact with the ground. 
It is not yet fully realized that when thoroughly treated 
that a red oak or beech tie becomes the equal, if not the 
superior, of an untreated white oak tie, as far as resist- 
ance to decay is concerned. The use of such woods as 
red oak, beech, loblolly pine, etc., if generally adopted, 
would bring into the market a large body of timber 
which would insure a constant supply for many years 
to come. It is a fortunate circumstance that these 



278 Procee:dings of the: 

so-called inferior woods, because of their greater 
porosity, can be treated with chemicals so as to preserve 
them very effectively. 

The use of these woods, which is made possible by 
preservation, will not only open up a supply now 
standing in the forests, but it will also make possible 
the investment in lands producing such timbers. Many 
of these grow with great rapidity, at least sufficiently 
so as to make the possibilities of second and third crops 
a realizable possibility. Some day we may duplicate 
the conditions now prevailing in eastern France, where 
the preserved beech ties last until another crop of beech 
ties furnishes a new supply. 

Preservation will therefore be an almost indispens- 
able factor in any consideration of future supply, and 
when one considers the good results obtained, its 
importance will be fully realized. 

The use of shortlived woods for tie and construction 
purposes when chemically preserved will have a whole- 
some effect on the utilization of the higher grade 
longlived timbers. The writer has repeatedly pointed 
out that the full value of a piece of white oak is not 
realized in these times when it is used in the form of a 
tie. White oak is coming to be more and more valuable 
in the form of lumber and for construction purposes, 
for car building, in the cooperage trade, etc. A rail- 
road using white oak for ties at a valuation less than 
one-half of what it would be as car sills or cooperage 
stock, is cutting off industries which it should foster 
along its lines. This is especially true when the road 
could be using less valuable woods for what must be 
considered as inferior service, such as ties or piling. 
These' woods when treated are just as serviceable and 
oftentimes better than the more valuable wood. This 
is a point worthy of serious study from the traffic 
standpoint. 



Ame^rican Forest CoNGR]ess 279 

Another point which may be alluded to here is the 
influence which the use of less valuable woods, always 
after preservation, has on local business and feeling. 
The less valuable woods are generally distributed along 
most of the railway lines, and should they come to be 
generally used, every owner of woodlands would find 
a local market for one class of his farm product which 
he now has but little use for. This is not only true for 
ties, but for other classes of material. Take fence 
posts as an example. Many roads now use cedar, 
shipped long distances from off their lines. If birch, 
sycamore, maple, red oak, and saplings of other trees, 
which grow on every farm, were generally used, it 
would stimulate local interest, encourage home indus- 
tries, as it were, and at the same time serve to give a 
large and comparatively cheap supply. That such 
saplings can be easily and cheaply treated (at a cost of 
5 to 6 cents per post) has recently been successfully 
demonstrated. 

While the foregoing points are doubtless worthy of 
consideration, it is, nevertheless, true that the foremost 
and immediate interest in timber preservation is one 
which deals with the more economical handling of the 
timber problem. Timber preservation would not mean 
anything if it could not be shown that in the long run 
it is cheaper to use shortlived woods when preserved 
than unpreserved longlived woods. 

Without going into details at this point, it may be 
stated that there is probably no one to-day who does 
not believe that timber preservation in one form or 
another pays. The extent to which preservation will 
pay will depend upon several factors, such as the first 
cost of the wood, the cost of renewal, the cost of the 
treatment. In a recent discussion of this subject it 
was pointed out that the following table of annual 



28o Proce:^dings o? the 

charges might be taken for various kinds of untreated 
and treated timbers. 

TABIvE SHOWING ANNUAL CHARGES. 

Timber and Length of Original Cost of Annual 

Treatment. Service. Cost. Treatm't. Charge. 

White oak, untreated loyrs. $0.85 $0,121 

Red oak or loblolly pine, 
untreated 5 yrs. .40 .124 

Red oak or loblolly pine, 
with zinc chloride treat- 
ment 10 yrs. .40 $0.16 .085 

Red oak or loblolly pine, 
with zinc creosote treat- 
ment 16 yrs. .40 .25 .065 

Red oak or loblolly pine, 
with creosote treatment.. 20 yrs. .40 .45 .069 

The conclusion to be drawn from such a table is that 
the treated timber in every case is cheaper in the long 
run than the untreated timber; furthermore, that the 
better treatments, although more expensive at first, are 
very much cheaper in the long run. One ought to add 
that the treatments given above were selected from a 
long list, as representing extremes and averages of 
cost. 

Having reached the conclusion that timber preser- 
vation is worth considering; in other words, that it 
makes possible the utilization of timbers not generally 
used, and that it pays, one may consider somewhat 
more in detail some of the problems connected with 
preservation. One cannot dwell too frequently upon 
the sentence that timber preservation is not merely an 
injection of salts or chemicals into wood. I have stated 
elsewhere that it involves not only the successful injec- 
tion of chemicals, with all that that implies, but also 



American Forest Congress 281 

keeping them in the wood, and after the wood has been 
rendered more or less decay or fire-proof, the protection 
against wear must be considered. 

Successful preservation — that is, preservation which 
will pay — will depend upon: 

1. The timber used. 

2. The preserving method used. 

3. How the preserving is done. 

4. The man who supervises the preserving. 

The selection of timber used should be governed by 
the available supply. The kind of wood used is after 
all probably the least important factor, because, when 
preserved, the indivuality of the wood becomes more or 
less insignificant. The longest-lived preserved timber, 
speaking with reference to decay alone, will be the one 
which will allow of the most perfect and even penetra- 
tion of a preservative, and which at the same time will 
hold such a preservative. But we not only want long 
length of life, but also a timber which, with any given 
treatment, will bring an increased length of life which 
shall represent the greatest possible financial return on 
the original investment, made up of the first cost of the 
timber and the cost of the preservative process. It so 
happens that the open-grained porous woods which, 
when untreated, last but a comparatively short time, 
give high penetration and comparatively long increase 
in length of life; while the denser woods, which ordi- 
narily are called longlived, give a poor penetration and 
a comparatively short increased length of life as a 
result of preservation. Recent tests with timber like 
beech and elm have shown an amazingly high absorp- 
tion for zinc chloride, amounting to as much as .65 
pounds of dry zinc chloride per cubic foot, using a 23^ 
per cent solution of zinc chloride. 

It is, as has been stated, a fortunate fact that most 



282 Proceedings o^ the 

of the shortlived woods conform to the requirements 
for long increase in length of life, just referred to, and 
that it will pay to use them. 

Having decided upon the timber available which 
can be treated, the next problem is, how shall the 
timber be treated ? In other words, what rnethod shall 
be used? There are a host of processes, beginning 
with the metallic salts, like copper, zinc, mercury, etc., 
and ending with creosote or tar oil, either alone or 
in combination, for all of which certain merits are 
claimed, omitting, for the present, processes employing 
chemicals of unknown preservative value. I will not 
have the time to discuss this important question at any 
length and will restrict my remarks to a few general 
considerations which it seems to me should govern in 
the choice of a preserving process. 

I regard the choice of a process entirely as one 
involving a certain risk in investment. One must 
start, of course, with the assumption that any one of 
half a dozen processes under consideration will actually 
preserve the wood for a shorter or longer time. This 
assumption is not unfair, when one is dealing with 
preservatives of such known value as zinc chloride, 
copper sulphate, mercuric chloride, creosote or tar oil, 
and possibly one or two others. Assuming, then, that 
these preserve wood, one naturally comes to the 
question of cost. This one may regard from two 
standpoints; the first one, which is the usual one in 
Europe, considers the annual charge; in other words, 
the saving which can be made in the long run when 
comparing an untreated with a treated piece of wood. 
A glance at the table which I presented a few moments 
ago will show that in the long run the creosoting 
process in some form is the cheapest, even if it costs 
more at the beginning; in other words, the annual 



American Forest Congress 283 

charge on an untreated loblolly pine tie which has to 
be replaced every five years is $0.12, while for the 
creosoted tie it is only $0.06. 

Looking at the problem from the second standpoint, 
one considers the original investment, and not the 
annual charge. Taking the same case of loblolly pine, 
an untreated tie costs $0.40. If this is treated with 
creosote one must add $0.45 to this cost; in other 
words, a new tie and 5 cents more ; while if one treats 
such a tie with zinc chloride one adds on only $0.16, 
or about one-third the cost of a new tie. 

For the European investor who deals with timbers 
of a high initial cost a comparison such as the one just 
mentioned does not occur. The French beech tie cost- 
ing $1 or more and lasting four years when untreated, 
will last 25 to 30 years when treated with creosote, at 
a cost of 75 cents or thereabouts. It is obviously the 
correct thing for these conditions to use the most 
expensive treatment. The number of ties treated is 
comparatively small, the economic conditions are more 
or less settled, and the investment of 75 cents per tie 
for treatment is not felt as a hardship. 

When we turn to our condition in this country we 
have a different problem to face. While the spending 
of 45 cents for treatment of a 40-cent tie may give 
good results, it would be a poor investment, for the 
risk would be too great. After five or six years the 
tie sizes may be changed, and by that time only a small 
portion of the investment made in the treatment would 
be realized. An investment of 45 cents additional on 
a 40-cent tie lasting four years would furthermore 
mean the immediate expenditure of a very large sum 
of money, which would show no return until more than 
eight years had elapsed. This sort of investment is 
not profitable, although it doubtless will come at some 
future period. 



284 Proceedings of the 

No treatment can be seriously considered which costs 
more than 25 to 30 cents. Wood is still cheap, and 
until the original cost of a tie goes to $1 or thereabouts 
cheaper treatments must prevail. Of those advocated 
I would advise using the best ; in other words, consid- 
ering the investment from the first standpoint, that of 
annual charges. This would mean either a cheap 
creosote treatment, one using small amounts of oil with 
as good penetration as can be obtained, or a zinc creo- 
sote combination, both of which would cost 20 cents 
or thereabouts. The risk taken would be a small one 
because the preservatives have a known value and the 
original amount would not be a disproportionate one 
when compared with the cost of a new tie. 

From this brief outline of the kind of preservative 
to be used, we may pass to some of the results which 
have been obtained from preservative treatment. While 
timber preservation has been practiced more or less in 
this country for many years, it has been carried on in 
such a way as to give few reliable data. The records 
which were kept during the early days are very unsat- 
isfactory, and only very general conclusions can be 
drawn. In getting together the figures for the coming 
International Railway Congress, as to results obtained, 
we went carefully over all records kept by American 
railroads. 

As a result of our study, we were able to report an 
average length of life obtained for hemlock ties laid 
in Iowa, treated with the Wellhouse process (zinc 
chloride, glue, and tannin), of 10.6 years; hemlock 
untreated lasts about four years. About the same 
length of service was obtained in the southwestern 
states with mountain pine treated with zinc chloride, 
glue, and tannin. These results are on the whole very 
satisfactory, for the length of life of these shortlived 



American Forest Congress 285 

woods was more than doubled at a cost not quite 
one-half the original cost of a new tie. 

Timbers treated with creosote show results in the 
United States similar to those obtained in European 
countries. Piling of longleaf yellow pine has been in 
service in bridges since 1869 and 1870 in several south- 
ern states, and a recent examination shows that the 
wood is still sound. There is no longer any necessity 
for doubting the value of creosote (or, as it should be 
more properly called, tar oil) as a wood preservative. 
Where a good quality is used, and with a sufficient 
quantity injected, an almost indefinite length of life 
can be obtained. The chief objection against its uni- 
versal use has been the high cost of the oil and the 
small quantities available. There seems to be no good 
reason why more tar oil should not be produced in this 
country and at lower cost. It is encouraging to note 
the introduction of by-product coke ovens in which the 
available tar oils are being saved. More of those 
by-product ovens should be constructed, and if uni- 
versally used in coke-burning regions there would no 
longer be any dearth of oil. 

There are several new processes using creosote 
which are so conducted as to use small quantities of 
creosote, thereby reducing the cost of treatment and 
bringing the creosoting process within the range of 
consideration. In speaking of creosote, I cannot omit 
a word of caution as to the manner in which wood is 
frequently treated with tar oil. Creosoted wood has 
a bad reputation in many quarters, for it is said that 
the treatment with tar oil makes the wood weak, brittle, 
and brash. That such is frequently the case no one 
who has had occasion to examine any amount of creo- 
soted timber can doubt. During the past summer we 
have been conducting an extensive series of tests at 



286 Proceb:dings oif the 

St. Louis to determine what influence treatment had 
on the strength of wood fibre. The effect of the usual 
preliminary steaming was investigated, and also the 
effect of injecting creosote in varying quantities with- 
out preliminary steaming. While it is as yet too early 
for final conclusions, I am glad to be able to state that 
we have determined very definitely that the injection 
of creosote into wood has about the same effect as 
injecting a similar amount of water; in other words, 
the creosote in and of itself in no way renders wood 
brittle and weak. We found that the brittleness or 
weakness was brought about by the steaming operation 
before the injection of the oil. Steaming at 20 pounds 
for about four hours did not affect the fibre materially, 
but when continued for a longer period the wood was 
weakened. After ten hours of steaming at 20 pounds 
pressure the wood decreased as much as 26 per cent 
in strength. The same was true when steamed at 
higher pressures. 

These results clearly indicate that where the best 
results are to be obtained as little steaming as possible 
should be practiced in treating wood with creosote. 
This will probably hold for other preservatives as well. 

A word should be said here concerning some of the 
problems dealing with abrasion of treated timbers. 
No process of preserving will pay if the preserved 
timber is rendered unfit by being worn out prematurely. 
The question of tie plates and rail fastenings should 
receive serious consideration in all discussions on pres- 
ervation. It so happens that many of the shortlived 
woods are soft and easily worn. Preservation will 
protect them against decay, but not necessarily against 
wear. Recent trials with wooden tie plates have 
proven very encouraging. Some of these, made of 
cypress, have been in a main line track for eight months 



Am^ican Forest Congress 287 

with very satisfactory results. This goes to show that 
there may be many ways and means for protecting the 
soft woods against wear. 

The success of any preservative process will depend 
largely upon the care with which it is carried out. 
One must come more and more to the realization that 
preservation is a dendro-chemical industry, involving 
a technical knowledge of timber and of chemical 
processes, all stages of which should be carefully con- 
trolled. In dealing with timber one deals with one of 
the most variable classes of material, no two pieces of 
which are alike at any time, and knowledge and judg- 
ment are required to obtain the best results under these 
varying conditions. There are numerous preserving 
plants now in operation, but of these there is only one, 
so far as I am aware, where a trained chemist with a 
good laboratory watches every stage of the process. 
The wood-preserving industry, although it has been 
practiced in this country for many years, is still com- 
paratively a new industry, which is beginning to assume 
larger proportions. Wherever preserving is carried 
on it should be with all the care of a chemical factory. 
The nature of the wood should be known, its stage of 
seasoning, its absorptive capacities, the absorption 
obtained in various runs, the temperatures reached 
during treatment — all these points and many others 
should be watched and recorded for future reference. 

This naturally leads one to speak of the person who 
is to have charge of work of this character. I have 
repeatedly urged that the preserving problem, in its 
relation to the railroad and other industries using 
treated woods is a problem worthy of the undivided 
attention of a trained technical man. 

A railroad should have a man who can deal with 
timber in its broadest sense. I do not mean a pur- 



288 Proceedings o:p the 

chasing agent, but a technical man, who should have a 
position equivalent to the consulting engineer, reporting 
to the vice-president or general manager. He should 
be able to deal with forest lands in their relation to 
railroad supplies, with timber inspection, handling, 
treatment, and its final disposition. He should have 
authority to make investigations with competent assist- 
ants, so as to keep himself posted as to changes in 
methods, as to timber values, maintenance problems, 
etc., and his opinion should be that of an expert. So 
far as I know, only one railroad has so far created a 
position of manager of a tie and timber department in 
the sense indicated. It is particularly striking that 
this should be the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 
Railroad, a road with the largest experience in timber 
treating of any in this country. The example which 
they have set should be followed by others. 

In discussing preserving problems I have spoken 
largely of ties and railroad timbers because these forms 
of timber have so far been most frequently treated. 
Most of the preserving plants are either directly or 
indirectly connected with railroad operations. The 
chemical preservation of wood, whether it be against 
decay, fire, warping, stains, etc., will probably play an 
increasingly important part in the development of an 
economical utilization of forest products. Not only 
will it affect railway and telegraph interests, but also 
in a smaller way each owner of forest lands and the 
smaller user of timber. Farmers have been using 
longlived timbers for fence posts. These are getting 
expensive in many parts and have to be shipped long 
distances. By treating the saplings growing on his 
own farm, each farmer will be able to make his own 
posts at slight expense. 

The lumber interests will be influenced by the more 



American Forest Congress 289 

general introduction of preserving processes. Woods 
which have had Httle value will find a market, and 
those woods which, in their untreated condition, are 
low-priced, will appreciate in price when once it can be 
shown how they can be treated to give them increased 
lasting power, or make them higher grade. 

There is as yet no general appreciation of the fact 
that most kinds of timber can be successfully treated. 
Treatment is an exception and rarely considered either 
by the producer or consumer. We have been spoiled by 
the wealth of timber of superior qualities which we have 
had for many years, and it may take some time to effect 
a change. That this change is coming I feel sure of, 
and can prove it by the following extract from a letter 
written by a farmer in one of the northern states, who 
asks : "Please tell me how I can preserve maple fence 
posts to prevent rot at the ground. If you can't tell 
me how to make them last thirty years or more you 
needn't take the trouble to reply to this letter." 



LETTER FROM JAMES J. HILL 

Hon. James WiIvSOn, 

Secretary of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C. 
Dear Mr. Wilson : 

I wired you to-day my inability to be present at the 
Forest Congress, which I very much regret. 

The subject is of importance far beyond the general 
understanding of the public. The growth of popula- 
tion in the United States has practically covered all the 
land which can be cultivated with a profit without 
artificial moisture. Irrigation and forestry are the 
two subjects which are to have a greater effect on the 
future prosperity of the United States than any other 
public questions, either within or without Congress. 
Yours truly, 

(Signed) Jas. J. Hii,i.. 



PART VI. 

IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC FOREST LANDS 

TO MINING 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF WATER 

POWER AS RELATED TO FOREST 

RESERVES 

BY 
A. L FELLOWS 

District Engineer, United States Reclamation Service 

I IGHT and heat, air and water, all earth's elements 
combine in the formation of a habitation fitted 
for her children. Nature has apparently employed 
all her many agencies and utilized all her generative 
forces in heaping up her bounteous and varied stores 
for the enjoyment of her creatures. Through untold 
ages she was engaged in preparing a home for her 
humbler children, and throughout the countless cen- 
turies that have passed since the earth was first fitted 
for the sustenance of life, she has continuously been 
perfecting conditions suitable for higher and yet higher 
species of living, sentient creatures, until, at the present 
time, man, that species which we in our self-esteem 
count highest of them all, holds the center of the stage. 
Amongst the many secondary agencies which the 
great all-Mother has utilized in making this earth a 
habitation and a home for all her creatures, the forest 
stands almost preeminent. It has clothed the earth 
as with a garment, protecting it from storms and 
erosion. It has been the home of almost all varieties 
of land life from the lowest to the highest. It has 
saved its denizens from the rigors of the winter's cold 
and from the summer's scorching heat. Not contented 
with the bestowal of mere temporary benefits, it has 
stored up in the coal measures the heat and sunshine 
of summers long past for the use and enjoyment of 



294 Proce:^dings o]? the 

the creatures of to-day. It is to-day, as it has always 
been, a most active agent in the preservation and up- 
building of the human race and a most important 
factor in providing in all ways for man's comfort. It 
furnishes him with both the necessities and the luxuries 
of life, nourishing his body and gratifying his soul's 
desires. From and through it have come the materials 
by which man has subdued both the land and the sea 
and, to-day, it is, as it has ever been, the benefactor 
of all, of "man and bird and beast." 

Others have touched upon its importance as the 
source of our timber supply, the conservation of water 
for our irrigation projects, the chief dependence of 
our range industries, our railroads, our wood-working 
and publishing interests, and the general welfare of 
the public. I desire now to invite your attention for 
a few moment to its importance as a factor in the 
development of the waste power which lies dormant 
in all our running streams and upon which the future 
welfare of the entire country will so greatly depend. 

The people of the United States are but just awak- 
ening to the great possibilities existing in embryo in 
our creeks and rivers. Electricity, that giant dynamic 
of the present generation and of countless generations 
yet unborn, is hardly more than in its infancy. Every 
stream, small or large, has potential power, which can 
be carried practically unlimited distances, at least sev- 
eral hundreds of miles, and can be used in any amount 
desired or in any desired combination with that derived 
from similar streams, though they may be many miles 
apart. One of the greatest needs that this country 
has to-day is a cheaper form of power, so that indus- 
tries as yet undeveloped on account of the excessive 
cost of operation under existing conditions, may in 
their turn add to the national wealth. This is true 



American Fore:st Congress 295 

along nearly all industrial lines, but the need is perhaps 
more pronounced in mining regions than it is else- 
where. By far the greater number of our ore deposits 
are of such low grade or are located so unfavorably 
with reference to the utilization of coal or the other 
more usual methods of power development that their 
economical operation is out of the question. In many of 
our mining camps coal costs from $10 to $15 per ton, 
and at many of the mines its delivery, even at such 
high rates, is impossible. 

The only practicable power in such cases is that 
obtained from electrical energy, and it is to this force 
that mine operators are turning. 

There is no doubt but that many times the amount 
of power used in mining operations at present could 
be utilized to advantage at prices that would well pay 
capital to furnish it, provided the means for creating 
the power could be depended upon. 

Electrical power may be generated in many ways, 
but in none more practically or more beautifully than 
by the use of water. Here a great dynamic is utilized 
which would otherwise waste itself. We here avail 
ourselves of one of Nature's resources without in any 
way exhausting her reserve supplies as is done in the 
present wasteful use of coal. Conditions may easily 
be conceived — in fact, many such cases exist — where 
a given water supply may be utilized several times 
over in the development of power without diminution 
in quantity or deterioration in quality, and be used 
again finally for city water supply and in irrigation, 
and the day is not far distant when all of the mountain 
streams, with well sustained flow, will be utilized to 
an extent now hardly dreamed of. 

The development of electrical energy on a commer- 
cial basis upon a given stream and with a given fall 



296 Proce:^dings 01^ the; 

will depend upon a variety of conditions, and in nearly 
every one of these conditions the forestation or lack of 
such upon the headwaters of the stream plays an im- 
portant part. First of all is the total amount of water 
available which must, however, be considered in con- 
nection with the nature of its discharge — whether 
perennial or spasmodic. 

The ideal condition for a maximum development of 
power would be that prevailing under a reservoir so 
large as to be able to impound all the run-off resulting 
from precipitation in the given drainage basis and its 
complete regulation. To insure permanence in reser- 
voir capacity, the water supply must be clear, free from 
the presence of silt resulting from erosion, and removed 
as completely as possible from evaporative influences. 
The maximum development demands that the entire 
quantity shall be under such perfect control that a 
little more or less as desired may be utilized at any given 
time; and that it be well sustained throughout the 
year or other long periods, approaching as nearly as 
possible a perfectly even flow, with but little, if any, 
more in May and June than in September, January, 
or any other month; since the power developed, to 
be of commercial value, must permit of dependence 
being placed upon it throughout long periods of time. 
Otherwise it will not pay to install and operate the 
necessary plants. 

Such conditions as have been described are not often 
even approached in nature, but in many localities far- 
seeing men are trying to approach them as nearly as 
practicable through the construction of great storage 
reservoirs and by forestation, and, where the head- 
waters have been denuded of the timber, by reforestation. 

Here is, to a great extent, the keynote of the situa- 
tion. Those regions that approach most closely to the 



Amejrican Forejst Congre:ss 297 

ideal conditions are those which are densely forested 
and can, therefore, act as conservators of the water 
supply with the least artificial aid. 

Forests aid in controlling the run-off. Compare 
two tracts similar in all other respects, but the one 
densely covered with a forest canopy, while the other 
has been denuded of such protection. In the first 
case the forest cover, with its attendant conditions of a 
more granular and porous soil, its humus and leaf 
mould, holds back precipitation instead of letting it 
run off as rapidly as it would otherwise do. The 
snows of winter cover the ground with comparative 
evenness, so that it is protected from rapid melting 
when the sudden warm periods come. The moisture, 
moreover, instead of disappearing rapidly as surface 
run-off, goes very largely into the ground to appear 
in the form of springs, perhaps months later, as seepage 
run-off. The same is true of the summer rains. In- 
stead of the precipitation resulting from this cause 
converging rapidly into a great torrent sweeping 
everything from before it, the moisture goes into the 
ground to return again as run-off when it is more 
particularly needed, the otherwise torrential stream 
becoming well sustained and perennial. 

From deforested tracts the run-off is much more 
likely to be beyond human control. Great floods made 
up from the converging streams carrying logs and 
debris of all kinds before them, sweep irresistibly 
down the river valleys, taking with them diversion 
dams, gates, power plants, and destroying what they 
cannot carry away. 

Then again, in a well forested tract, if over-grazing, 
with its attendant ills, has not been tolerated, there is 
usually a dense undergrowth, which retards the run- 
off during rapid melting or after violent storms. Its 



298 Proceedings oi^ the 

tendency in these particulars is to cut off the crest of 
the destructive floods, depriving them of their power 
to do harm. 

The presence or absence of forests undoubtedly has 
a marked bearing, too, upon the quantity of the run- 
off. This effect varies with a number of different 
conditions, chief amongst which are the permeability 
and porosity of the soil, the different habits in different 
species of plant life in the matter of transpiration and 
the differences in evaporation influences. The soil con- 
ditions have already been touched upon. Retention of a 
large part of the precipitation by the soil instead of its 
being permitted to flow off rapidly may, and probably 
must in many localities — as, for example, in the arid re- 
gions — result in a decreased total run-off owing to 
the probably greater increased "fly-off," as the sum 
of the evaporation and the transpiration is sometimes 
termed. This diminution in the total quantity is, 
however, considerably more than offset by the advan- 
tages incident to a regulation of the run-off and conse- 
quent increase in the low water discharge. As our 
old friend "Mike" once said: "It's better to have 
a little liquid refreshment when you need it, than to 
have a high old time twice in a year." 

It has been demonstrated that evaporation, greatest 
of all from a water surface in the open, is nearly as 
great from a wet earth surface similarly situated, and 
that the evaporation from a tract surrounded by forests 
is far less than it is from otherwise similar, but un- 
protected areas, this being due principally to the char- 
acteristics of the forest as a modifier of temperature 
and as a wind-break and shield. 

This matter has been discussed at length by Mr. G. 
W. Rafter in a number of valuable papers, in which 
he shows beyond doubt that in humid regions at any 



Ame:rican Forest Congre:ss 299 

rate the fly-off is materially less in forested than in 
unforested tracts. 

In the matter of transpiration, also, it has been shown 
that the amount transpired from the forest growth is 
considerably less than it is from cultivated crops. 
These matters have been carefully gone into in Mr. 
Rafter's papers, already mentioned, in Dr. Fernow's 
book, "The Economics of Forestry," and in Prof. 
Toumey's discussion of "The Relation of Forests to 
Stream Flow," as well as in many other important 
papers. 

The conclusions reached are, in effect, that as be- 
tween forested and unforested tracts, the quantity of 
run-off is materially augmented in the former case in 
humid regions where rains occur with more or less- 
frequency, but that in arid regions, where precipitation 
occurs but rarely, that the retention of the moisture 
by the forests results in some loss in total run-off, 
which, however, is more than compensated by the 
greatly increased flow during the periods of minimum 
discharge. 

Another important result of forestation must also 
be considered in this connection. It has been stated 
that the ideal conditions prevail when the total run- 
off can be controlled at will, the water being stored in 
great reservoirs. In a great many instances those who 
are interested in the development of power are endeav- 
oring to attain these ideal conditions as nearly as possi- 
ble, through the utilization of natural reservoir sites. 
Here, too, the forests serve a most useful purpose by 
preventing erosion. A tract of land that has been 
denuded of its supply of timber, especially when the 
denudation is due to fires so fierce as to destroy the 
humus and leaf mould with the vegetation, imme- 
diately becomes subject to the action of storms and 
the torrential run-off resulting in the rapid erosion 



300 Proceedings o^ the 

of the soil, and thus filHng the reservoir with silt and 
debris, shortens their periods of usefulness, and de- 
stroys their efficiency. That deforestation does 
result in an increase in the amount of sediment con- 
veyed by the running water has been amply demon- 
strated by investigations carried on both in this country 
and in others. All measurements of silt, so far as is 
known, indicate that the run-off from unprotected 
areas is much more heavily laden with gravel, sand, 
earth, and organic matter than is the discharge from 
areas well protected by forests. 

Where storage is not practiced, forestation still 
remains an important factor in power development, 
since a requisite of the utilization of the water supply 
for this purpose depends to some extent upon the 
freedom of the water from impurities. The presence 
of a greater or less quantity of silt or sand in the water 
supply has an important bearing upon the longevity of 
the machinery, especially the cups and bearings of the 
impulse wheels. The more rapid deterioration in the 
machinery may represent a very greatly increased cost 
in the development of power and a consequent limita- 
tion to its sphere of usefulness. 

Practically all that has been said concerning the 
development of electrical energy is applicable also to 
the development of power directly and through the 
compression of air through the agency of water falling 
through a shaft, a process which it is predicted will 
become much better known and utilized in the future 
than it has been in the past. 

Having established the fact that there is a close rela- 
tion existing between forests and the development of 
power through the medium of our streams it is an easy 
task to demonstrate the necessity for forest reserves 
and for their proper control and management. 

It is clear that forest lands still remaining in the 



Ame:rican Forest Congress 301 

Government possession should neither be allowed to 
pass into private ownership nor should they remain 
part of the unregulated public domain, especially under 
the conditions that prevail at the present time. In the 
former case, where such lands are permitted to pass 
into private ownership, human nature remaining as 
it now is, the controlling impulse will be to get the 
most money possible out of the land in the shortest 
possible time. This will usually result in the clearing 
off of the timber by the wasteful methods now prac- 
ticed, without thought for the future. Reforestation 
will not be carried on, and the certain result will be 
the rapid denudation of all our forested areas. 

Again, it will not do for the methods and regulations 
now in vogue with reference to the use of timber upon 
the public domain to be continued, since it inevitably 
results in the breaking out of forest fires and the wan- 
ton destruction of great bodies of timber, in addition 
to the great amounts of timber of which the Govern- 
ment is annually robbed. In investigations which 
have been made under my direction it has been clearly 
shown that many fires that had broken out in thickly 
forested districts of the public domain had been fol- 
lowed within a year or two by requests for Government 
permits for the use of the fire-killed timber left stand- 
ing, which often makes the very best mine and tunnel 
timbers. 

The forested areas must be watered and the cutting 
down upon them must be regulated. The grazing 
must be restricted so that the grass and other vegeta- 
tion shall not be destroyed. Deforested tracts must 
be reforested and only by the establishment of forest 
reserves and through their proper control by trained 
foresters, can we approach to the most ideal condition 
possible for the conservation of our water supply — a 
forest growth covering their headwaters. 



WILL THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE 
FOREST RESERVES ON A CONSER- 
VATIVE BASIS RETARD THE DE- 
VELOPMENT OF MINING? 

BY 

SETH BULLOCK 

Supervisor, Black Hills Forest Reserve 

'X' HE request of your honored President for a paper 
from me to be presented before this distinguished 
gathering was a genuine surprise, as I am not an 
adept in that hne of forest reserve work. My first 
impulse was to dedine the honor, but after considering 
the proposition in all its phases, I concluded that in 
view of the recent favorable legislation by the Congress 
of the United States, looking towards the placing of 
the forest reserves and the forest reserve officials in 
the department so ably administered by Secretary 
Wilson, that it would be wise for me to endeavor to 
comply with the request of President Wilson, and if 
the paper prepared should merit any punishment I 
could enter that time-honored and usually successful 
plea of self-defense in mitigation of my sentence. The 
question upon which I am requested to enlighten this 
aggregation of diversified wisdom is, "Will the admin- 
istration of the forest reserves on a conservative basis 
retard the development of mining?" To properly ar- 
rive at an understanding and solution of this question 

(and I assure you that it is a large one), it will first 
be necessary to determine to what extent the mine is 
dependent on the forest, and I wish it to be understood 



Ame:rican F'ore:st Congre:ss 303 

that my remarks will refer chiefly to the conditions 
existing in the Black Hills Forest Reserve, the only 
one of the larger timber reservations with which I am 
thoroughly familiar. 

Nearly all the developed mines of the Black Hills 
are large deposits of comparatively low grade gold ore, 
either free-milling or cyaniding in its character; fre- 
quently both processes are combined in the extraction 
of the values from the ore. In the successful prose- 
cution of the work required to make a mine productive 
and remunerative to the owners, the use of timber is 
an absolute necessity. Its uses are varied. It is re- 
quired to timber the shafts through which the ore is 
drawn to the surface. Heavy timbers are also required 
to take the place of the ore mined, to hold up the roof 
of the workings and sustain the sides of the stopes 
and drifts. The place of every supporting atom taken 
from the interior of a mine, like the Homestake, 
for instance, must be filled by some other material 
which can carry the burden with safety to the lives 
of the miners employed. This requires timber from 
the forest. No other material can be substitued for it. 
The use of iron or steel posts and beams is prohibited 
by their cost, to say nothing about their inadaptability 
to the work of underground mining. 

To form some idea of the large amount of timber 
used by a mine of the magnitude of the Homestake, 
it is only necessary to state that over one and one- 
quarter million tons of ore are annually extracted from 
this property, practically all of which is taken out at 
a greater depth than 500 feet from the surface of the 
ground. Its deepest workings are, I am informed, 
over 1,250 feet. 

It can be truly said that a veritable forest has been 
used under ground in the mines of the Black Hills 



304 Proc^e:dings O^ THK 

during the few years they have been in operation ; that 
no more of the forest has been used in their develop- 
ment than has been absolutely necessary, is doubtless 
true. The grade of the ore, the high wages paid, and 
the satisfactory returns received in most cases on the 
investment, prove that the mines have been most eco- 
nomically managed, the timbering being one of the 
heaviest items of expense in their operation. 

In addition to the timber used under ground in pre- 
cious metal mining, large quantities are required on 
the surface in the erection of ore reduction works and 
buildings required to house the machinery necessary 
in conducting the business of the mine. 

The question of wood for fuel is in some districts 
an important one, which happily has been in a measure 
solved in the Black Hills in recent years by the advent 
of railroads, connecting the mining districts with the 
coal fields of Wyoming, enabling the mines to secure 
a better and more economical fuel than that afforded 
by the forest wood. 

Another important factor in the business of mining 
as conducted in the Black Hills, fully as essential as 
timber, is an ample supply of water ; for if this is in- 
sufficient, the separation of the values from the mined 
ore would be impossible and the labor and expense 
of mining lost. As it is necessary, owing to these low 
grade ores that the stamp mills or reduction works be 
placed as near the mine as possible, large sums of 
money have been expended in supplying these plants 
with water which is derived from mountain streams, 
the continuous flow of which is dependent upon the 
preservation and maintenance of the forest conditions 
at their source ; the fact being now unquestioned that 
the denudation of the timber and forest cover, and the 
removal of vegetation at the supply points of our 



Ame:rican Forest Congress 305 

mountain streams, seriously check their flow and will 
in time cause their disappearance. 

"Before these fields were shorn and tilled, 

Full to the brim our rivers flowed. 
The melody of waters filled 

The fresh and boundless wood. 
And torrents dash'd and rivulets played, 
And fountains spouted in the shade." 

The dearly bought lessons of the East should be 
heeded by the West. 

The benefits derived by the stream from the forest 
are amply repaid by the increase of life-giving moisture 
in the air and soil. The stream is also a friend in need 
to the forest when attacked by its arch enemy, fire. 

It follows, then, that the forest and stream are de- 
pendent each upon the other and successful mining 
upon both. The dependency of the mine upon the 
forest having been established, the question arises, 
What is the best plan for securing a permanent supply 
of the necessary timber ? My reply is : intelligent and 
practical forestry which can best be obtained under 
forest reservation administered with business-like 
methods. That the cutting of timber upon the public 
domain should be permitted only under wise legisla- 
tion is a self-evident fact, approved of by every one 
acquainted with the subject. When no restrictions 
were placed upon it, these cuttings have nearly all 
resulted in the total disappearance of the forest. To 
prevent future destruction, forest reserves have been 
established and to them should be given the same man- 
agement that a prudent merchant accords to his busi- 
ness. No wise merchant would hold his goods until 
shopworn and old, neither would he dispose of all of 
them without taking the necessary steps to replenish 



3o6 Proce:i:dings of the ' - ■ 

his stock. Our system of forest reservation, as at 
present conducted, has been estabHshed but a short 
time, the first public timber sale under it having been 
made in November, 1900. Since then giant strides 
have been made in protecting the forest from waste, 
depredation and fire, and the pronounced benefits 
arising are apparent to the most casual observer. At 
first, the plan met with considerable opposition, prin- 
cipally because it was not understood, but as the policy 
developed, the people began to realize that forest reser- 
vation meant a saving of the wicked waste so marked 
in all former logging enterprises, a just price for the 
timber sold, a protection of the forest from fire and 
thieves, a conserving of the streams, a preservation 
of the young growth, the utilization of the dead tim- 
ber; in fact, that it meant more timber for their use 
and benefit. Now practically all opposition to forest 
reservation has disappeared and to-day it has the hearty 
good will and support of every honest man in and 
about the reserve. 

The present system could be improved upon by 
replanting and reforesting. In successful forestry 
there should be a seed time as well as a harvest. De- 
nuded areas in and adjoining the reserves suitable to 
the growing of timber should be planted with trees 
adapted to climate and soil. This, with a practical 
administration of the forest reserves, an administra- 
tion beneficial alike to the forest and the mine, one 
that takes into consideration not only the preservation 
and propagation of the timber, but the necessities of 
the mine as well, and that gives to the latter the most 
liberal treatment compatible with the permanency of 
the forest, will not, in my opinion, retard the develop- 
ment of mining, but, on the contrary, materially assist 
it. r 



IMPORTANCE OF THE PUBLIC FOREST 
LANDS TO MINING 

BY 

T. J. GRIER 

Superintendent, Homestake Mining Company 

I THINK our President made a mistake when he 
asked me to address the array of talent I see 
before me here today upon a subject of such far-reach- 
ing and vital importance as is indicated in the title to 
this paper, and I am sorry, therefore, that he did not go 
farther and secure for your entertainment someone 
better able to give the subject the careful and exhaus- 
tive review it deserves. 

Responsive to the query suggested by the title, per- 
mit me to suggest that "Forests help mining" in much 
the same general way that they help all other industries 
which require forest products. The forest furnishes 
the supply; the industries make the demand. The 
main and chief products of the forest being wood and 
water, I fear that the progress of very many of our 
great industries would not be rapid if they were 
deprived of those articles. The importance to the 
nation's great industries of the forest therefore is not 
questioned, but a very great deal of interest and impor- 
tance is centered in such conservation of it as will 
enable it to meet the great and growing demand of 
those industries. 

The question of tree supply and demand presents 
itself for that solution which will bring about an ample 
and increasing supply to meet an ever-increasing 
demand that is being made upon it. I trust that the 



3o8 Proce:e:dings of the 

deliberations of this Congress may point the way to 
that solution. 

Prodigal in the use of our woods, and forgetful of 
the resulting damage to our mountain streams and 
springs, perhaps we have too long neglected the care 
of our forests ; or does our rapid progress in the devel- 
opment of the manifold resources of this country, 
which calls for generous quantities of forest products, 
merely lead us to imagine that such is the case? I 
incline to the former belief, and I think that a visit to 
the denuded areas within regions once forested, and 
to the dry places where springs of clear water once 
flowed, will bear me out. If this is true, we must 
meet the demands of such rapid progress, or a halt 
must be called. 

I do not believe that the American people are built 
upon lines that would make palatable the calling of a 
halt in their onward march, but that, the necessity 
being made apparent to them, they will rise to the 
occasion as one man, and with all of the energy with 
which they are by nature endowed quickly set about 
correcting the sins of omission of which they have 
heretofore been guilty. 

Fresh from the southwestern corner of South 
Dakota, the former home of the Sioux Indians, who 
once thought, and perhaps yet think, that in defending 
their forest home death in tribal warfare was an honor 
rather than a calamity, and where I have resided for 
over a quarter of a century, I have noted with much 
concern the slow but sure dwindling of the forest. 
Although the extensive operations in that region of 
the great mining industry with which I have been 
connected have during that period been conducted, and 
are still being pursued, with the view of conserving 
the forest, the dwindling of the forest area still goes 



Ame:rican Fore:st Congre:ss 309 

on. In the pursuit of this poHcy of forest conservation 
it is only right to say that the forest has been the 
gainer, while the mining company has been the loser. 
The company I have the honor to represent, in using 
wood as fuel instead of coal, does so at a material loss, 
because the only wood used for fuel in the Black Hills 
is the dead, down and insect-infested trees which the 
departmental regulations very properly insist shall be 
removed from the forest. Such very inferior material 
costs the mining industry and all other industries using 
it approximately 100 per cent more than coal for either 
heating or steam-making purposes. If a suggestion in 
this connection is pertinent, I desire to say that the 
Government should give such material for the taking, 
so that the consumers of forest products who can and 
are willing to conserve the best interests of the forests 
by taking the inferior stuff should not be compelled, 
through having to pay for it, to bear an excessive share 
of the burden of cost of forest conservation. The 
Government enjoys excessive gain in having such 
refuse removed through promoting, in a material 
degree, the health and thrift of its green trees that 
remain. I think that should satisfy it. Its gain, how- 
ever, does not stop there, because the removal of this 
debris practically eliminates all danger of loss or dam- 
age to the green trees from forest fires. Trees breathe, 
digest their food, live, thrive, sigh, and die much as 
we of the higher order of animals do ; therefore, if the 
fittest are to survive and thrive, the conditions around 
them must be favorable and the elements of danger 
must be removed. I think the forest supervisors and 
rangers, and the scientists from the Entomological 
Division and the Forest Bureau who have made so 
careful a study of this subject and these conditions 
will second this suggestion. 

K 



3IO Proce:^dings 01^ the: 

Forests are important to mining, and benefits accrue 
to mining from forests; but it is not sufficient to say 
so and there stop. The forests are an absolute neces- 
sity to the mines. Nor is it true to say that the timber 
produced by the forests is the only benefit accruing 
from them. Conservation of water by a thrifty growth 
of trees is to the credit of the forest, while alike impor- 
tant and necessary to the mineral industry, and when 
that water is thus conserved it becomes invaluable as 
it flows upon such agricultural areas as may be adja- 
cent to the mineral lands. I say adjacent, but I do not 
mean within the exterior boundaries of the mineral 
zone, because I do not believe that the narrow strips 
of soil oftentimes found alongside of mountain streams 
which have cut through ledges of metal-bearing rocks 
and which consist largely of the erosion of those rocks 
constitute agricultural areas entitled to consideration 
or rights equal in any degree with the rights of the 
mines. And I think any legislation looking to the 
giving of grants to such so-called agricultural areas a 
hindrance and stumbling block in the way of progres- 
sive and successful mineral development. 

Not many, perhaps, fully appreciate the enormous 
quantity of timber needed in and about a great mine in 
order to carry on its operations and protect the lives 
of its operatives. The hoisting works, metallurgical, 
and other buildings on the surface which are always 
in sight perhaps render the casual observer unmindful 
of the fact that further supplies of the forest product 
are required with every foot of progress made in pene- 
trating underground. As the miner's work of taking 
out the ore advances, he surrounds himself with a 
framework of timber which is intended to hold in place 
the sides and roof of his excavation. Wherever it is 
possible to hold in place these sides and roofs with 



American Fore:st Congress 311 

waste rock instead of timber it is done; so that there 
need be no division of opinion as to the willingness of 
the miner to adopt such practice whenever it can be 
done. The better protection of his property from 
disastrous caves suggests it; the protection of his 
operatives makes it imperative; it is cheaper. 

It is true that a substitution of metal for wood in 
certain permanent improvements about the works of 
some of our great mines has been made, and it is 
probable that wood will continue to give way to iron, 
steel, and possibly other non-combustible materials in 
limited extent. At the every-day task of mining ore 
and developing underground, however, I do not antici- 
pate any such substitution, nor do I think that the 
importance of the public forest lands to mining will 
be lessened by the change in practice in making such 
permanent improvements, because of the small ratio 
the consumption by such improvements bears to the 
whole. 

I am not familiar with all of the conditions that now 
surround the several areas in the United States which 
constitute its forest reserves, or that surrounded those 
areas when the reserves were created, but I have inti- 
mate knowledge of the conditions which prevailed and 
surrounded the home of the Sioux Indian up to the 
spring of 1877. Inasmuch as Article II of the By-laws 
of this Association suggests, as one of the objects of 
its being, the advancement of such legislative measures 
as the Association thinks may tend to promote the 
general welfare of forests, I am persuaded to call the 
attention of this Congress to the importance of consid- 
ering well such local conditions as may be found at 
each and every reserve before advancing general legis- 
lation, the operation of which would affect all of the 
reserves alike. I further desire to submit to the 



312 Proci:e:dings of the: 

attention of the Association the fact that there are 
certain conditions in and about the Black Hills Reserve 
which should not be forgotten when suggesting laws, 
rules, and regulations for its government. In the first 
place, it will be remembered that the Black Hills 
Reserve was the home of the Sioux Indian until 1877, 
and that the Government, having satisfied itself that 
there was within the exterior boundaries of that home 
a valuable mineral kingdom, arranged for the red man 
to vacate the premises. Announcement of the new 
find was then made to the world, the area was platted 
on the Government maps as a mineral zone, and the 
miner was invited to enter, explore, and develop the 
zone. The miner came upon this invitation, has been 
diligent ever since, and has invested millions of dollars 
in exploration, development, and improvements, rely- 
ing in the prosecution of his work upon having the full 
benefit of all of the natural resources of the country, 
and without which his work cannot continue success- 
fully. I therefore submit to this Congress that it will 
be manifestly unfair to advance any legislation having 
for its effect the depriving of the Black Hills miner 
of those natural resources in any degree. 

Touching another subject, suggested in Article II 
of its By-laws as justification for the being of this 
Association — the advancement of educational measures 
tending to promote forest welfare — I think that we 
may confidently rely upon that department of the 
Association which will have in hand the dissemination 
of knowledge relating to forest welfare to do its duty. 

Fully realizing that the benefit of the forest to 
mining is of such importance that it can only be 
appraised by giving it the value that attaches to an 
absolute necessity, and that much value also attaches 
to the forest in its relation to the other great industries 



Ame:rican Forest Congress 313 

of the country which, combined with the mineral indus- 
try, go far towards making the nation the great, 
glorious, and prosperous whole that it is, I cannot 
refrain from suggesting at this time that the custodian 
of the public domain and its natural resources should 
not be unmindful of the immense value to it from the 
operation of those combined industries. 

While the receipts and expenditures of all industries 
except mining can be so fixed as to return interest on 
the investment, and that such industries have practi- 
cally life in perpetuity, it is not so in the mineral 
industry. With it the day comes when, after having 
given to the country their treasures, the mines, one by 
one, become exhausted, and their costly improvements 
are allowed to decay. Is it asking too much, then, 
that the mineral industry be most considerately treated 
by this Government? If not, most liberal should the 
consideration be that is given to the precious metal 
mines which furnish the foundation of the nation's 
credit, and which saved that credit from annihilation 
after the civil war. 

I become more and more impressed with the neces- 
sity of tree planting to insure forest perpetuation and 
enlargement, and to insure the maintenance of stream- 
flow, and I am amazed at the indifference upon the 
subject so long displayed by a people otherwise so 
mindful. Dwelling upon the subject for a moment, I 
next wonder how the tree planting can be most success- 
fully and economically accomplished, when something 
says to me it can be done by the forest rangers. I 
submit the thought for your consideration. 

Will you bear with me a moment longer, Mr. Presi- 
dent, and gentlemen of the Congress, while I call 
attention to a condition obtaining in and about all of 
the for@st reserves of the United States, and which 



314 Proce:edings o^ the: 

looks to me to be very unfair to a few of the great 
industries operating about and within those reserves. 
Under the presidential proclamations creating the 
reserves, and under the laws as they now exist, it is 
not possible for any industry — railroads and irrigating 
companies excepted — to be made secure in the posses- 
sion of a right of way extending through a forest 
reserve. Is that fair? Is there any reason why a 
great mine, after spending a large sum of money in 
constructing a waterway through a reserve for the 
purpose of bringing a supply of water to its works 
and to the people manning those works, should not be 
able to get as good title or right of way for such 
conduit as is given to the irrigating company or to the 
railroad company that builds a line through the same 
reserve in order to haul other kinds of supplies to the 
same works and to the same people operating the 
works ? 

Under the laws and proclamations creating the Black 
Hills forest reserve the miner is protected in the pos- 
session of such mining locations as he possessed at the 
time of the creation of the reserve. Further than that, 
he is permitted to make new and additional locations. 
Both these provisions are just. They are, however, 
inadequate. They stop short of giving that protection 
to which the mining industry in the Hills is justly 
entitled. The absolute necessity of water for the devel- 
opment of the mining claim is universally conceded. 
The United States Government recognized this neces- 
sity. It has thus far failed, however, to make adequate 
provision to enable the miner to secure himself in the 
possession of this necessity. Since 1866, the Govern- 
ment of the United States has granted to the miner the 
right to construct upon its public lands ditches and 
flumes to conduct the waters of the streams required 



American Forest Congress 315 

in legitimate mining operations. It has in effect 
granted rights of way across such pubHc lands for 
such ditches. It has provided that all patents issued 
shall be subject to such ditches and rights of way. 
This eminently just and wise policy seems to have 
been suddenly abandoned in regard to those lands 
comprised within forest reserves. Since the creation 
of these resertes there has been, so far as I am advised, 
no provision made by which the miner can secure the 
grant of a right of way for his ditches and flumes, 
without which his property may be utterly valueless. 

It is true that the act of February 15, 1901, entitled 
"An Act Relating to Rights of Way Through Certain 
Parks, Reservations, and Other Public Lands," does 
provide that the Honorable Secretary of the Interior 
may permit the use of rights of way through the forest 
reservations for ditches and flumes used in connection 
with mining and other operations. But the authority 
conferred upon the Honorable Secretary is so emascu- 
lated by the concluding provision of this act as to leave 
him in effect no authority to grant any substantial 
right, but unlimited power to revoke the favors already 
conferred. That proviso reads as follows: 'And 
provided further that any permission given by the 
Secretary of the Interior under the provisions of this 
Act may be revoked by him or his successor in his 
discretion, and shall not be held to confer any right 
or easement or interest in, to, or over any public land, 
reservation or park." 

I particularly call your attention to Regulations No. 
2 and No. 1 1 promulgated by the Honorable Secretary 
under this act. (Circular July 8, 1901). 

No. 2 reads as follows : "It is to be specially noted 
that this act does not make a grant in the nature of 
an easement, but authorizes a mere permission in the 
nature of a license, revocable at any time." 



3i6 Proce:e:dings o^ the: 

No. II reads as follows: "Upon receipt of applica- 
tions for right of way by the General Land Office, the 
same will be examined and then submitted to the 
Secretary of the Interior with recommendation as to 
their approval. Permission to use rights of way 
through a reservation or any park designated in the 
act will only be granted upon approval of the chief 
officer of the department under whose supervision 
such park or reservation falls and upon finding by 
him that the same is not incompatible with the public 
interest. If the application and the showing made in 
support thereof is satisfactory, the Secretary of the 
Interior will give the required permission in such form 
as may be deemed proper, according to the features 
of each case; and it is to be expressly understood, in 
accordance with the final proviso of the act, that any 
permission given thereunder may be modified or 
revoked by the Secretary or his successor, in his discre- 
tion, at any time, and shall not be held to confer any 
right, easement, or interest in, to or over any public 
land, reservation or park. The final disposal by the 
United States of any tract traversed by the permitted 
right of way is of itself without further act on the part 
of the department a revocation of the permission so 
far as it affects that tract, and any permission granted 
hereunder is also subject to such further and future 
regulations as may be adopted by the Department." 

In short, gentlemen, the miner who, at a cost of 
thousands, nay hundreds of thousands of dollars, has 
constructed his ditches across the public lands of the 
reservation in order to make profitable a mining prop- 
erty otherwise idle and worthless, holds his investment 
of dollars and brains subject not only to the changing 
policy, to say naught of the whims and caprices, of an 
administrative officer of the Government, but, what is 



American Fore:st Congress 317 

a far more serious danger, subject to the blackmailing 
schemes of the mine adventurer who, by obtaining a 
patent for one mining claim across which the ditch is 
constructed, has the absolute power of obstructing the 
operation of the ditch and thus of the mine. 

Certainly, such results could not have been foreseen 
by our law-makers. But they are not only probable; 
they are inevitable. There is a remedy — simple, 
speedy, just — and that is a law promptly giving to the 
miner the same rights given to railroad corporations 
and irrigating ditches; at least, a law by which the 
miner in a reserve is protected to the same extent that 
he is protected upon public lands not within a reserve. 
The law, as it stands, puts a premium upon the dis- 
honesty of the nomadic mining adventurer. It offers 
no protection whatever to the bona fide miner. It 
should be promptly amended. 

For the respectful attention given to a few thoughts 
of a brand-new member of your Association, hurriedly 
incorporated into a so-called paper, I thank you, 
gentlemen, most heartily. 



MINING IN THE FOREST RESERVES. 

BY 
MAJOR F. A. FENN 

Supervisor of Forest Reserves in Idaho and Montana 

I N many of the Western States where forest reserves 
have been established, mining holds the foremost 
place among our industries. With coal mining we 
have little to do; hence, in the remarks that I shall 
make, the term mining will be confined to metalliferous 
mining. No other industry is more directly and inti- 
mately connected with the administration of forest 
reserves than mining. The preservation of timber and 
the conservation of the water supply — the two great 
purposes of the forester — are exactly suited to meet 
the demands of the two chief branches of the mining 
industry, lode mining and placer mining. The lode 
miner must have timber for his underground workings ; 
and without water, the placer miner is helpless. The 
Government has ever guarded the miner's interests 
most carefully. Every inducement has been given 
the prospector, and the development of the mineral 
resources of the country has been encouraged and 
stimulated. Consistently with its steadfast policy, 
Congress took pains to see that the law authorizing 
and setting apart portions of the public domain as 
forest reserves should contain nothing of detriment 
to the mining industry. The act of June 4, 1897 (com- 
monly called the Forest Reserve Law), among other 
things provides as follows: 

"It is not the purpose or intent of these provisions, 
or of the act providing for such reservations, to author- 



Ame:rican Fore:st Congress 3^9 

ize the inclusion therein of lands more -valuable for 
the minerals therein, than for forest purposes." 

And further: "Nor shall anything herein prohibit 
any person from entering upon such forest reservation 
for all proper and lawful purposes, including that of 
prospecting, locating, and developing the mineral re- 
sources thereof: Provided, That such persons comply 
with the rules and regulations covering such forest 
reservations." 

And further still : 'And any mineral lands in any 
forest reservation which have been or which may be 
shown to be such, and subject to entry under the exist- 
ing mining laws of the United States and the rules and 
regulations applying thereto, shall continue to be sub- 
ject to such location and entry, notwithstanding any 
provisions herein contained." 

While the act contains the above-quoted provisions, 
it also outlines a plan for the preservation of the forests 
within the reserves and gives to the Secretary of the 
Interior power to elaborate the system and make it 
effective, by authorizing him to "make such rules and 
regulations and establish service as will insure the 
objects of such reservations, namely, to regulate their 
occupancy and use and to preserve the forests thereon 
from destruction." 

Realizing the vital importance of the mining industry 
to the national prosperity, and at the same time appre- 
ciating the necessity of protecting the forests for the 
benefit of the people, the law-makers devised a scheme 
of forest protection that enables forest reserves to be 
maintained and the mining industry to be carried on 
simultaneously in the same territory, not only without 
conflict or friction, but in such manner that scientific 
forest methods may be applied in fullest measure, while 
the best interests of the bona fide miner are subserved 
and promoted. 



320 Procee:dings o:^ the: 

Under the same law, the authority given the Secre- 
tary of the Interior to prescribe rules and regulations 
to effectuate the system outlined in the law, provided 
the means whereby the details of the reserve policy 
might be worked out and adapted to the conditions of 
the mining industry as they should be encountered in 
the different localities where mining interests and forest 
methods might come in contact. The scheme devised 
enables every miner to secure from forest reserves in 
the State in which his mines are situated whatever tim- 
ber is necessary to the prosecution of his enterprise. 

Prior to the enactment of this law, a different condi- 
tion prevailed. Before the act of June 4, 1897, was 
passed, almost the only way for the miner to obtain 
timber from the public lands legitimately was under 
the act of 1878, which allowed the cutting and removal 
of timber from public mineral lands for mining and 
other specified uses. This act placed miners in an 
embarrassing position. Under the general laws, and 
according to the policy of the Department of the Inte- 
rior, the public lands are presumed to be non-mineral, 
and held to be such until the contrary is shown ; hence, 
to justify the cutting and removal of timber from a 
given tract, under the provisions of the act of 1878 it is 
incumbent upon miners to be in position to show that 
the land involved is mineral in character. This neces- 
sitates the discovery of mineral ; for ordinarily the fact 
that some mines are known to exist in a certain region 
does not establish the mineral character of the whole 
territory included. To demonstrate by prospecting 
or otherwise that a particular tract from which it is 
proposed to cut timber is mineral lands, is to invite the 
location of it by others as mining ground, and thereby 
defeat the very purpose of the person needing the tim- 
ber; for, under the mining laws, the locator has the 



American F'orijst Congre:ss 321 

right of possession, and is entitled to the exclusive 
enjoyment of the surface of the ground located. The 
consequence has been that no effort to determine the 
real character of the land was made, the needy miner 
preferring to take the timber on land separated from 
his claim and run the risk of being brought before the 
court for cutting and removing timber from public 
lands illegitimately, rather than to place the timber 
beyond his own reach through proving the tract to be 
mineral in character, and assure its subsequent location 
by interested parties, who would surely take advantage 
of the showing made, to their benefit and to his injury. 
It may be suggested that the person desiring the 
timber might himself locate and secure control of both 
timber and land ; but the reply is that the law as con- 
strued requires that the timber cut from a given claim 
must be used on that claim, or on a group of which that 
claim forms a part, and cannot be removed for use on 
a different claim. This most annoying complication 
has been fully appreciated by the Government and by 
courts, and the result has been that really very little 
regard has been paid to the character of the land from 
which timber was cut for mining purposes. The con- 
dition precedent to justify the cutting was practically 
neglected, and it was deemed sufficient that the timber 
taken was devoted to a use contemplated in the law. 
The necessities of the miners, and the peculiar provis- 
ions referred to, combined to make the majority of the 
miners of the Northwest law-breakers. In fact, few 
miners knew the exact requirements of the law. It 
was commonly understood that whatever forest pro- 
ducts might be needed could be taken anywhere any 
at any time. This erroneous view often resulted in 
prosecutions, which usually terminated in acquittals 
that have brought discredit upon the administration 



322 Proce:edings of the: 

of justice in the far West. Now, happily, this deplor- 
able condition of affairs is obviated through the passage 
of the Forest Reserve Law, and the bona fide miner 
is given opportunity to secure timber in a legitimate 
manner from the public lands. 

This one point alone, gained through the develop- 
ment of American forestry, should commend the sys- 
tem to every person truly interested in the continued 
prosperity of the mining industry. Still, the difficulties 
mentioned might have been overcome by direct legisla- 
tion, and the vital matter of forest preservation left 
untouched. 

Every successful lode mine is a consumer of enor- 
mous quantities of forest products. Such properties 
as the Homestake mine in South Dakota, the great 
copper mines of Butte and Anaconda in Montana, or 
the lead-silver producers of the Coeur d'Alenes in 
Idaho, require almost incredible amounts of timber 
for their operation. While commonly there is natu- 
rally a fair supply of timber in the mountainous regions 
where such mines are found, it is far from inexhausti- 
ble. The first impulse of the miner in the hurry and 
scurry of the newly discovered mining region is to 
cut and slash indiscriminately. He takes a tree here, 
another there, as his immediate needs may suggest. 
He gives no thought to the refuse from his cutting. 
He is heedless of the damage that may be done to the 
remaining timber, and he is utterly extravagant in the 
use of that which costs him nothing, and which there 
is no one to claim or protect. 

What might be expected, ensues. Fires start in the 
cut-over tracts, spreads through the accumulated debris 
to the adjacent forests; and the country for miles 
around is devastated. Recurring fires continue the 
destruction, and in a relatively few years the mining 



AME:RrcAN Fore:st Congre:ss 323 

camp is surrounded by denuded hills, and the miners 
are face to face with the timber famine, the penalty 
of their own thoughtless extravagance and careless- 
ness. 

Another cause of destruction is the wanton burning 
of forest cover where brush and other material impede 
the hasty work of the prospector. Too often it occurs 
that the prospector, his imagination fired by finding a 
rich piece of float, without thought of the injury he 
may do to others or even to himself, deliberately sets 
fire to the forest to clear the ground and facilitate his 
operations. Not only is immeasurable damage done 
to the mining industry at large by such criminal prac- 
tices, but the fire-bug is likely to render the mine, if 
he discover one, wholly valueless, because of the de- 
struction of timber on which successful operation of 
the property may depend. 

It is useless to cite examples to illustrate what has 
been said concerning the destruction of timber in the 
vicinity of mining camps by prospectors. The expe- 
rience of any practical miner is sufficient to prove the 
correctness of what is stated. 

The preservation of the forests in a State of highest 
continued production involves the economic use of 
timber, encouragement and stimulation of reproduc- 
tion, and protection from fire and spoliation. 

It frequently happens that mining properties are 
found at altitudes where the better grades of timber 
cannot grow. Such species as are adapted to these 
high elevations rarely attain dimensions suitable fof 
ordinary commercial purposes; and again, too, the 
stand is limited, so that he who appreciates the situa- 
tion must realize the vital necessity of husbanding the 
available supply. In spite of these conditions, how- 
ever, miners, particularly in the boom days of any 



324 Proce:e:dings o^ the 

mining camp, are, as before stated, prone to extrava- 
gance in the use of timber and to be careless in their 
methods. After a few years of such work, the in- 
creasing cost of forest products and the rapid diminu- 
tion of the supply arouse consumers to their early 
folly, and stir them to an appreciation of conservative 
forest methods and to the importance of enforcing 
them. 

But at this stage, proper protection of the young 
growth is most difficult. The needs of the consumers 
prompt the cutting of immature trees for all purposes 
where such timber can be utilized ; and to withhold such 
material is, under the circumstances, looked upon as 
a hardship. Large areas are now in process of refor- 
estation around many mining camps, where repeated 
fires, following in the wake of choppers, have cleared 
off the remnants of the original forest and also de- 
stroyed one or more second crops that have sprung up. 
The present growth is frequently sparse in conse- 
quence ; but it is usually largely composed of lodgepole 
pine, a variety of timber fortunately well suited to 
many of the miner's purposes when it is mature, but 
not calculated for any other use than lagging when in 
the sapling stage. This timber, too, is largely a pre- 
paratory crop, which nature provides to fit ares 
that have been devastated by fires for the growth of 
other and more valuable varieties of timber. This is 
a critical time in the process of reforestation, and it 
occurs just when the miner is experiencing the first 
pinch of timber famine, and he looks with longing upon 
the growing trees that might be employed as a make- 
shift to tide over present difficulties; hence, the 
apparent hardship. A comprehensive view of the 
situation will convince him that the ultimate good of 
the industry he represents will be advanced by prac- 



American Forest Congress 325 

ticing the most rigid economy in the use of this 
immature timber and by husbanding it and stimulating 
its growth to insure a later abundant supply. 

Right here I would call attention to the possible 
shortage of timber in certain reserves where the de- 
mands of miners may be most urgent. I have in mind 
the Black Hills Forest Reserve, in South Dakota. 
Vast mining interests are at stake there ; at present 
there is an apparently sufficient supply of timber in 
the reserve to satisfy the needs of the mines, but the 
appearances are deceptive. The forests are badly in- 
fested, the pine beetle is doing his deadly work; and 
unless the ravages of the insect be stopped, the present 
forests of that reserve within a relatively short time 
will have been destroyed. Investigations made by 
competent forestry officials have proven that a remedy 
for the evil exists. The infested timber must be 
promptly cut down and the breeding places of the 
beetle sought out and the insects exposed to the ele- 
ments and killed. This heroic treatment fills the minds 
of Black Hills miners with apprehension. They 
therefore object to it; they fear that if this now in- 
fected timber be all cut and removed they will be left 
without any available timber. Such a result would 
indeed be disastrous ; but by opposing the cutting and 
removal of the timber beyond the present needs of the 
consumers, the evil will not be eradicated ; further de- 
struction is a certainty so long as the insects are 
allowed to harbor and propagate there. By thus pro- 
crastinating, the suffering miners but increase their 
difficulties; and if things be allowed to drift along as 
they are now going, not only will all the timber, young 
as well as old, be destroyed, but the possibility of a 
future crop will disappear. Now it would appear that 
if there is any chance for a supply of timber for present 



326 Proceedings oi^ the 

needs from the public lands to be assured for use in 
the mines in the Black Hills, the wisest course would 
be for every tree in the affected district to be cut and 
the threatened disaster averted, while at the same time 
the present young growth could be given an oppor- 
tunity to develop and become valuable, free from the 
blighting influence of the now tireless pest. Such a 
cuttin;;' would result in throwing a vast amount of 
timber on ihe market at once, an amount far beyond 
the demands of the day in that immediate vicinity. 
To attempt to retain it until the local market could 
dispose of it, would be to allow a large part to rot on 
the hands of the Government. Wastefulness of that 
character would be criminal. The only reasonable 
course would be to ship the stuff to other points, to 
other States probably for consumption. The law, 
however, prevents such shipments; timber cut from 
public lands may not be transported outside the State 
in which it is cut. Here is a dilemma. If the timber 
be not cut, the forests will be irretrievably ruined; if 
it be cut, it must be either burned or allowed to rot on 
the ground instead of being utilized to satisfy the wants 
of people in other States which nature has not blessed 
with timber growth. 

If the timber could be cut from public lands in one 
State and shipped to other States, the solution of the 
difficulty w^ould be easy. The insect-infested timber 
could be cut and the surplus exported to other locali- 
ties; and then, whenever the needs of the miners 
of the Black Hills should require it, the forests of 
Oregon, Washington, and northern Idaho, where there 
is no local demand at all, could be drawn upon for an 
indefinite time and until the young growth in the South 
Dakota hills should be again adequate to the necessities 
of the people there. 



American Forest Congress 327 

The present law on this point should be changed. 
Instead of remaining inflexible, as it now is, positively 
prohibiting the exportation of timber cut from public 
lands from one State to another, the law should be 
so modified as to allow the department in charge of 
the forest reserves in its discretion to authorize such 
exportation when the interests of the people would be 
subserved and the forest reserves benefited or at least 
not injured thereby. 

It should not be understood that the present legal 
difficulty is applicable only to the case cited above. In 
many of the great forest reserves of the Northwest, 
where there are hundreds of millions of feet of mature 
timber which is deteriorating in value every day, there 
is no local demand ; the lumber manufactured in Ore- 
gon, Washington, and northern Idaho is practically all 
shipped to markets outside those States. Because of 
the inhibiting law now on the statute books, the reserve 
timber cannot be utilized. It must remain neither 
useful nor ornamental, and finally die and rot where 
it grew; while the people of the prairie States of the 
Middle West appeal in vain for that which they so 
much need, that which they might have but for this 
absurd provision of a law enacted long ago to meet 
conditions that no longer exist. The incongruity of 
things is manifest. 

This Congress is deliberating here for the purpose 
of encouraging and making practicable an American 
forestry system, a system national in its scope; while 
the law referred to renders impossible the application 
of some of the most fundamental principles of true 
forestry by circumscribing vast areas of available ma- 
ture timber by the impassable barrier of a State 
boundary line. 

The economical use cannot subserve the miner's 



328 Proce:e:dings o^ the: 

needs unless it be supplemented by adequate protection 
against fire; and here is where an intelligent forest 
patrol is a necessary auxiliary to the mining industry. 
Protection from fire makes requisite certain precau- 
tions. Where trees are felled and removed, a minimum 
of the debris should be left on the ground to serve as 
a conductor of the flames, and all of it should be so 
disposed of that when the season ^f least danger 
arrives, the refuse may be burned without damage. 
These outlines indicate the importance of enforcing 
adequate supervision if the greatest benefit is to be 
derived from our forests; but, aside from any theo- 
retical view of the subject of forest preservation, there 
is a feature of the forest reserve policy which often 
escapes attention, but which every bona fide miner 
must recognize and appreciate. 

I refer to the prevention of illegitimate location of 
timber lands as mining claims. How many mining 
enterprises of great promise have been balked by such 
practices? Every experienced lode miner knows in- 
stances where "stake locators" have claimed every acre 
of timber land within miles of a promising discovery, 
for no other purpose than to compel the owner of the 
legitimate mining claim to purchase a fraudulent one 
in order to secure the timber essential to the operation 
of his property. Many of these nefarious schemes 
have been defeated through the efforts of forest offi- 
cers, and a more effective method of dealing with such 
blackmailers is being carefully worked out. Illustra- 
tions are not wanting to show that where opposition to 
the inclusion of certain tracts within forest reserves 
has resulted in the elimination of such tracts, and the 
land shark relieved from the vigilance that has pre- 
vented the carrying out of his plan, he at once makes 
application for patent to alleged mineral land and 



American Fore:st Congress 329 

promptly secures absolute control of it. These specu- 
lative entries place the legitimate miner at the mercy 
of the unscrupulous holder of the title. One or two 
alternatives the miner must adopt : either to sell out 
and practically abandon his property, or else to pay an 
exorbitant price for the timber his tormentor controls. 
Usually it is the object of the speculator to force the 
former; sometimes the latter is sufficient to satisfy 
his greed. In either case rascality triumphs, and the 
man whom the Government would assist and encourage 
is victimized and his meritorious enterprise embar- 
rassed or defeated. Further than this, in certain cases 
where formerly there was an abundant supply of timber 
available from the forest reserve, since eliminations 
have been made, residents find themselves unable to 
secure timber for domestic and other purposes without 
infringing the law ; and it has been demonstrated that 
ordinarily where a tract of timber land in a mining 
region, once included in a forest reserve, has later 
been excluded from it, the honest miner and prospector 
not only had little to do with securing the elimination, 
but is now anxious to be again within the reserve; 
while the purely speculative individual, whose schemes 
were formerly circumvented by forest officers, and 
through whose efforts the eliminations were made, 
instead of being thwarted, may do whatever his sinister 
motives may permit. 

It is commonly supposed that the conservation of 
the water supply and the maintenance of an equable 
flow in the streams of the country are of interest chiefly 
to the irrigationists ; the placer miner in this connection 
is forgotten. But he is an important factor in the 
nation's prosperity. Without an adequate water sup- 
ply, he cannot conduct his operations successfully, no 
matter whether his work be done with the primitive 



330 Proce:e:dings 01^ thk 

rock and the sluice box, or carried on with the most 
advanced dredging or hydrauHc elevator machinery. 
Moreover, as shown by the history of placer mining 
in California, Montana, and other great gold-producing 
States, there is a diminishing supply of water in every 
mining locality. The barren hills, once clothed with 
timber, tell the tale of repeated fires and testify to the 
reduced water-storing capacity of the drainage basin 
involved. The methods of practical forestry as carried 
out in the administration of forest reserves make it 
easy for- miners of all descriptions to secure adequate 
supplies of timber to satisfy their needs, and wherever 
a reserve has been established a sufficient length of 
time, the honest miner is ever the friend of the reserve 
system. 

Like any other innovation, the introduction of 
forestry methods in a mining camp commonly arouses 
apprehension and antagonism ; but experience cures the 
troubles. The conservative business administration of 
the forest reserve quickly results in the appreciation 
of the beneficent purposes of the reserve system, and 
converts enemies into friends. The honest prospector 
and the bona fide miner have nothing to fear from the 
forest reserve. As the forest policy shall be elaborated 
and adapted to the varying local conditions, the ad- 
ministration of the reserve will be improved, and the 
interests of the mining industry more enhanced. Ex- 
amined from the viewpoint of experience, the relation 
of forest reserves to the mining industry appears so 
intimate, the success of one so directly interwoven with 
and dependent upon the continued prosperity of the 
other, that the possibility of real antagonism between 
them cannot be entertained. The forest reserve system 
has come as a benefactor of the mining industry, and 
when properly understood, it gives every incentive 



American Forest Congress 331 

to miners to yield it their loyal support. American 
forestry and American mining should work hand in 
hand. Forest officers, laboring for the common good 
of all, reciprocally miners, as active and efficient 
friends, may cooperate in the achievement of noble 
objects alike beneficial to themselves and conducive to 
the public weal. 



THE VALUE OF FORESTRY TO COM- 
MERCIAL INTERESTS 

BY 

GEORGE H. MAXWELL 

Executive Chairman, The National Irrigation Association 

C OME ten days ago a telegram reached me from the 
Governor of CaHfornia asking if I could attend 
this Congress as a delegate from California. I replied 
that I could, and in due time received his appointment. 
I mention that merely in order that I may impress upon 
your minds that in the few words I have to say to you 
at this gathering, I speak as a delegate from and a 
citizen of California and a resident of that State, from 
the time of my birth until the last few years, which 
warrants me in speaking of forestry from the stand- 
point of a Western man. 

I think it is only proper that I should further say to 
you that I also represent on this occasion the National 
Irrigation Association, an organization of between two 
and three thousand of the largest commercial and 
manufacturing firms in the United States, located 
chiefly in the Eastern States, and that I speak also 
from the standpoint of the Eastern commercial and 
manufacturing interests. 

I think the mistake which those of us who are from 
the west make to-day, and always have made, is in 
looking upon this question of forestry in any sense as 
a sectional question. It is necessarily as mLich a 
national question as the maintenance of an army or 
the construction of a navy. 

I wish I had the power by some telepathic process 



Ame:rican Forest Congress 333 

of impressing upon the mind of every man present the 
picture that is in my own mind as I stand here. 

I crossed the Mississippi river on my way to the 
west a Httle over two years ago on a ferry boat on 
which was loaded a train of overland passenger cars, 
and as we crossed that great river opposite the city of 
New Orleans, during one of the greatest floods in 
years, the flood was almost up to the tops of the levees 
on both sides of the river. It was a serious question 
whether the city of New Orleans was not in danger; 
and as we landed on the west side of the river we 
looked down over the bank and saw the plantations 
way down below the level of the water, and exposed to 
overflow and destruction any moment that artificial 
barrier gave way. Before we had gone twentyfour 
hours further west the levee did break and one of those 
great crevasses was formed, and practically destroyed 
the crop for that season over a large area; though 
other localities and the city of New Orleans were saved 
by the diminished pressure of the flood on the adjacent 
levees. 

As I stood on the boat and looked out over that great 
river, then at its highest flood stage, I realized the fact 
that from over more than one-third of the entire area 
of this nation, the water that falls upon it must escape 
to the ocean through that one gateway; and that as 
the years go by, year after year, we are destroying the 
grass and plowing up the prairies and stripping the 
trees and the brush and forests from the mountains so 
that the engineers can see that every flood plane gets 
a little bit higher than the last. 

I could not help thinking to myself whether it might 
not be possible some day or other to awaken the people 
of the Mississippi valley to a realization of the fact 
that forestry is a problem extending from New Orleans 



334 Proceedings oi^ the 

to the Continental divide of the Rocky Mountains on 
the west, to Canada on the north, and to the crest of 
the AUeghenies on the east, where the Ohio river has 
its source. And if it is expected in the years to come 
to control that great flood by building the levees higher 
and higher, I have only to say to the people of the 
lower Mississippi valley, the sugar bowl of the conti- 
nent, that the time will come when they cannot build 
them higher and the country will go back to a swamp 
and be as desolate as it is to-day where the St. Francis 
basin is covered with water through which you may 
look down and see the tops of the trees that once grew 
on dry land. How are you going to prevent that? 

I say to you as a commercial proposition, if you look 
at it solely from that standpoint, as a proposition of 
cold, hard figures, that it is the duty of the national 
government to conserve that flood of water so that 
every drop of it can be used in the State where it falls 
before it finds its way into that great river and goes 
down to destroy the plantations. And that year by 
year the use of that water, if it were all used for power, 
for irrigation, for the navigation of the streams in the 
summer season (because the water would be in the 
streams then in the summer season), that it would 
more than double, more than treble, more than quad- 
ruple the productive power of more than one-third 
of the United States. 

Isn't it worth doing? 

Let us carry the picture in our minds a little farther 
up the river and look at Kansas City and that great 
flood that came so near destroying its business section 
that same winter. Look at the Ohio River flood in 
the Pittsburg vicinity that same winter. Look at the 
Allegheny Mountain region a year later. I came 
down from Harrisburg to Washington last spring 



Ame^rican Forest Congress 335 

when Congress was in session. The railroad track 
had been submerged and torn to pieces in many places 
by the flood, and the ice was banked up as high as the 
second story windows of the farmhouses to the left 
as we came down the river. 

It is only within the last two weeks that I read an 
article in the New York papers to the effect that the 
cities of that Allegheny region were without water, 
the railroads were hauling water and the mines were 
shut down because the rivers were dry. 

I ask, why is that? And I will answer the question 
for you. It is because we have gone over those hills 
and mountains with axe and fire and stripped the 
hillside and the mountain tops of the whole Allegheny 
region, and instead of having a natural forest cover, 
which is the greatest reservoir known to nature or to 
man, we have a surface which sheds water as fast as 
the floor of this hall would shed it if you stood it at 
an angle of 45 degrees. 

There is no other question of as much interest to the 
commercial, manufacturing and transportation inter- 
ests of the country, to say nothing of agriculture, as 
that one question, forestry. 

It is not a western problem or an eastern problem — 
it is a national problem. 

When I appeal to you for this broad consideration 
of it, all that I ask is that you will project your minds 
across the ocean to the shores of the Mediterranean, 
to Palestine, to Persia, to the plains of Mesopotamia, 
and answer me this question : 

Where is there a nation that has been desolated by 
war that has not been restored to fertility when it 
lived upon a land that was productive? 

Where has there been a nation destroyed by the 
desert that has been restored or ever will be? 



33^ PROC^]eDINGS O^ THE 

Instead of talking about national protection by 
"army and navy," we should talk about national pro- 
tection by "forest, army, and navy." 

I am in favor of an army commensurate with our 
needs. I am in favor of this nation having not the 
second best, but the greatest navy of any nation, but 
if we can afford to do that, we can afford to spend as 
much upon the preservation of our forests and the 
protection of our country from destruction by the 
desert as we can afford to spend for the protection 
of our frontiers from a foreign foe, or to carry our 
flag upon foreign seas. 

This great problem of forestry is not alone a matter 
of sentiment. It is just as much a cold-blooded ques- 
tion of business. The speakers who preceded me have 
spoken upon the importance of forestry to mining. I 
have listened with much interest to their masterly dis- 
cussions on the relation of forestry to mining, and it 
brought more forcibly than ever to my mind the con- 
viction that the whole country and those engaged in 
all its industries are fast coming to recognize the 
importance of forestry. I regret that we cannot in- 
clude the lower house of Congress. They do not seem 
to have yet waked up to it. I have read that the 
Japanese have been throwing 800 shells a day into 
Port Arthur, which have cost $1,000 apiece. I think 
we could well afford to go to that expense with shells 
that were physically harmless to see whether we could 
not wake Congress up, by exploding that many such 
shells over the heads of the members of the House of 
Representatives. 

I am not going to take up your time with any further 
dissertations upon the importance of forestry. But I 
want to offer some practical suggestions as to what we 
should do to get what we want done. I listened with 



American Fori:st Congress 337 

the greatest interest and pleasure to the President's 
address yesterday, and one of his sentences struck me 
very forcibly. He said : "We want to change the hope 
of accomplishment to the knowledge of things done." 
If we are going to do that we must have a clear-cut 
idea of what we are going to do and of what we want 
Congress to do — so plain and clear that there is no 
possibility of any man being so stupid that he cannot 
understand it. 

We have listened to these gentlemen here to-day 
telling of the necessities of the mining industries and 
of the injustice brought about by insufficient laws. 
There is a most simple way to get all the things done 
that they have recommended, and more, too. The 
first is to bring about a perfect understanding with a 
business bureau of the Government, if we can create 
such a bureau, and the way to do that is to pass the 
bill consolidating the forest reserves under the control 
of Mr. Gifford Pinchot. 

And after you have done that and he has consulted 
with the lumberman and the miner and the farmer 
and understands what they want, then back him up 
and make your Congressman help to get it done. 

There has been a good deal said here about tree 
planting, and I want to speak of the importance of 
tree planting to California, The water that comes 
from the Sierra Madre and San Bernardino Mountains 
produces annually $20,000,000 worth of fruit and other 
products of the irrigated farms to exchange with the 
manufacturers of the east for the products of their 
factories. The forests of those mountains have been 
neglected, thousands of acres have been burnt over 
and destroyed. One citizen of that State has interested 
himself prominently in tree planting. I refer to Mr. 
lyukens. He deserves to be mentioned by name. He 



33^ Proce:edings 0^ the: 

has given generously of his own time and his own 
money and the Government has helped in a niggardly 
way. There is now a nursery of trees ready to be 
planted upon the hillsides of those burnt wastes and 
we cannot get a few thousand dollars' appropriation 
to plant the trees. 

Now why is it that such a condition as that can 
exist? Why is it? I will tell you the reason. It is 
because we have "Watch Dogs of the Treasury" in 
Congress who object to large appropriations for for- 
estry. They can see the vast importance of huge 
contracts for armor plate and for building fortifications, 
but they care nothing about protecting our country 
from destruction by the desert. 

Let us look at the business end of that proposition. 
There are other things besides bees that have business 
ends. For a number of years the President of the 
United States, the Secretary of the Interior and the 
Commissioner of the General Land Office have been 
trying to impress upon Congress, without success, the 
necessity of repealing the Timber and Stone act. I 
want to give the exact facts. The President, in De- 
cember, 1902, more than two years ago, called the 
attention of Congress in the strongest possible lan- 
guage to the necessity of doing something to stop the 
frauds and depredations upon the public domain under 
the Timber and Stone Act. The Secretary of the 
Interior reiterated his demand, and specifically urged 
Congress to repeal that law. 

The secretary said in his annual report more than 
two years ago : 

"The Timber and Stone Act will, if not repealed or 
radically amended, result ultimately in the complete 
destruction of the timber on the unappropriated and 
unreserved public lands." 



Ame:rican Forest Congress 339 

I find these words in the report of the Senate Com- 
mittee on the PubHc Lands, and the date is February 
19, 1903: 

"It can be plainly seen that all the valuable timber 
lands of the United States will be owned by speculators 
within three years if the opportunity to acquire them 
at $2.50 an acre is continued." 

That was February 19, 1903. 

It is now pretty close to February 19, 1905, and one 
year from that date the three years will be exhausted, 
all the timber land will be gone, according to this 
official statement. 

Has the bill been repealed? No! Has the House 
of Representatives done anything to stop this shameful 
waste of the public property under the Timber and 
Stone Act ? No ! 

They have done nothing whatever to stop the abuses 
and frauds constantly being committed under that act. 

Again, the following year the President in his mes- 
sage to Congress made substantially the same recom- 
mendation. They were reiterated by the Secretary 
of the Interior. The Senate Committee on Public 
Lands recommended a bill to repeal the Timber and 
Stone Act and the Senate passed the bill in the last 
session of Congress. 

It went to the Public Lands Committee of the House 
of Representatives. 

Mr. T. B. Walker appeared before that committee 
and waved his magic wand and they gave two votes 
for the repeal of the bill out of eighteen members of 
the committee. Two votes! And the bill is lying 
there in that committee yet. 

In this session of Congress, without waiting for 
anything, or for anybody to do anything, they passed 
a resolution in the Public Lands Committee of the 



340 Proce:e:dings oi? tnt 

House continuing this whole subject over until the 
next session of Congress. 

The next session of Congress will convene at a time 
within two months of the expiration of the three years 
within which the Senate committee told Congress that 
all the timber land would be gone unless they got 
action. 

T. B. Walker is one of those astute business men 
who has taken full advantage of the idiocy and incom- 
petency of the men who have framed our timber laws 
in the past to amass a fortune for himself in timber- 
lands. He is reputed to be the largest individual owner 
of timberland in the United States. I do not charge 
Mr. Walker with having committed any fraud himself, 
and the fact that he has acquired a fortune running 
into millions by the utilization of laws which enabled 
him to absorb the public forests into his private owner- 
ship is one of the severest criticisms that can be made 
of the law I am talking about. 

Now it is a question of money. From the standpoint 
of Congress this great nation has not enough money 
to plant those few trees we have in the nursery, to 
protect the forests of Southern California and the 
water supply of its farms and of the cities of Los 
Angeles and Pasadena. 

In the two years that have expired since the Presi- 
dent has called the attention of Congress to that timber 
and stone law there has been located under the Timber 
and Stone Act over 3,000,000 acres of timberland, 
the greater part of it the magnificent timber of the 
Northwest, which, according to the report of the Sec- 
retary of the Interior and the Commissioner of the 
General Land Office, is worth anywhere from $20 to 
$100 an acre, for the mere value of the stumpage, to 
say nothing of the young timber or the land itself. 



American F'orest ConCrdss 341 

In other words, as a result of the deUberate delay 
of the Public Lands Committee of the House, instead 
of having the value of the stumpage from that 3,000,- 
000 acres of timber in the national treasury, we have 
parted with the timber and the land and the young 
growth and everything for $2.50 an acre. 

Taking the value of that timber at what the stumpage 
actually sold for upon some of the Government land 
in Minnesota, $15.06 an acre, the Government has lost 
$40,000,000 by that proceeding. But the stumpage on 
the 3,000,000 acres located during the last two years 
was much more valuable than that. And if the Gov- 
ernment had managed its timberland business as any 
business man or any man of sense would have managed 
it, we might just as well as not have realized $70,000,- 
000 from that stumpage, and have had our young 
forest trees planted in southern California and the 
surplus left over. 

We are told that there is going to be a deficit this 
year in the revenues of the United States of $22,000,- 
000. If we had not thrown away that $70,000,000 
we could have covered that deficit at least twice over 
and still have had money left in the treasury. In other 
words, the Public Lands Committee of the House has 
thrown away over $70,000,000 of the people's money 
in the last two years. If we should put this total loss 
at only $50,000,000 for the two years it has amounted 
to over $2,000,000 a month, or about $70,000 a day. 

Now suppose some enterprising and ingenious per- 
son had succeeded in tunnelling under the United 
States treasury and cut a hole into the vaults and was 
carrying off $70,000 a day. Don't you suppose we 
could get the people of the United States to wake up 
the Public Lands Committee if it required some action 
by them to stop the stealing? That is exactly what is 

h 



342 Proce:e:dings of the 

going on ; for if the House Public Lands Committee 
does nothing in this session of Congress (and they have 
already voted to do nothing), the loss to this country 
of $70,000 a day — $2,000,000 a month — $25,000,000 
a year, and it is much more than that — will go right 
along and continue until all the timberland of our 
Government has been stolen. That will be a little 
over a year, according to the report of the Senate 
Public Lands Committee. And after the land is all 
gone — after the horse has been stolen, the House Public 
Lands Committee will awaken from their Rip Van 
Winkle slumbers and close the stable door with a bang. 

Now who has got this vast sum of money that has 
been lost to the people and the Government? Some 
very enterprising gentlemen of the West have made 
it, who are taking advantage of this law to their own 
personal profit and we are very seriously told that the 
West does not want the repeal of the Timber and Stone 
Act. Mr. Lacey, of Iowa, the chairman of the commit- 
tee, says that ''the boys on the committee do not want 
the law repealed." Let me illustrate this condition in 
the West. Suppose we had a law by which $70,000 a day 
or $2,000,000 a month was being paid to Tammany 
Hall from the national treasury, to be divided among 
the members of that organization and expended by 
them as each of them in his judgment should deem 
most meet and proper for the promotion of good gov- 
ernment in New York City. 

Don't you suppose that Tammany Hall would be 
opposed to the repeal of that law? 

You might apply the same idea with reference to 
this question of the West. But it is a more serious 
matter than that. There are men in Congress who will 
deliberately stand up and say that this law should not 
and shall not be repealed. 



American Forest Congress 343 

There was one thing the President said yesterday 
that I as a Western man cannot fully endorse. He said, 
in substance, that if the forests of the West are to be 
saved, the people of the West must save them. I say 
to you that if the forests of Oregon and Idaho and 
Washington and Montana and Colorado are not to be 
saved unless the people of those States save them, 
they will never be saved. If they are to be saved at 
all, it will be by Theodore Roosevelt and the people 
of the East. 

I want right here to express the obligations we owe 
to President Roosevelt for going into the West and 
making forest reserves which have saved thousands 
upon thousands of acres of forests of the West that 
never would have been saved had it not been for 
Theodore Roosevelt. 

It is also a matter of history that the forest policy 
which now exists was forced upon the West against 
its will by Grover Cleveland by executive order. 

You find such Congressmen as Mr. French, from 
Idaho, arguing against the repeal of the Timber and 
Stone Act and making such arguments as I have 
heard him make, that it was a good thing for the Gov- 
ernment to sell a man for $400 a quarter section of 
land, which he could turn around and sell for $4,000 — 
that it induced people to go to Idaho and gave them 
capital to start in business. Don't you suppose that 
if you offered a bonus of $3,600 in cash out of the 
national treasury to every many who would come to 
Washington to live that you could get more people to 
reside here and raise the value of real estate in the 
city? That is the proposition from the Idaho stand- 
point as applied to the city of Washington. 

Before I close I wish to specify some definite and 
specific things which should be done : 



344 Proceedings of the 

First. Repeal the Timber and Stone Act. 

Second. Pass the consoHdation bill putting the Gov- 
ernment forests under the management of the Bureau 
of Forestry. 

Third. Provide by national legislation that every 
acre of agricultural land that can be reclaimed under 
the national irrigation system must be saved for the 
homemaker who will go there and make a home upon 
it. 

In that way you can break up the timber combina- 
tion, and in that way only; because the land thieves 
of North Dakota, under the Commutation Clause — the 
land thieves of Montana under the Desert Land Act — 
the land thieves, under the Timber and Stone Act — 
well, perhaps I might be permitted to mention Oregon 
in this connection — are working together. You will 
have to explode some of those Japanese shells among 
them to break up the combination. 

The situation in Oregon reminds me of a saying of 
Mayor Henry, of the city of Oakland, out in California, 
twenty or more years ago. There had been a good 
deal of rottenness in the municipal affairs. The newly- 
elected mayor was something of a rival of Mrs. Part- 
ington. His knowledge of Greek names were a little 
mixed, and in his inaugural address he declared with 
great energy, "Gentlemen, I am going to clean out 
the Oregon stables!" 

I really think we are going to get the Oregon stables 
cleaned out. 

To show you why we cannot depend upon Congress- 
men from the timber State of the West to correct this 
enormous evil, a year ago both Oregon Senators and 
both Representatives from Oregon were bitterly op- 
posed to any change in the land laws. Representatives 
Hermann and Williamson both went before the com- 



American Forest Congress 345 

mittee and protested against any change. Mr. Her- 
mann was before the committee. At that exact moment 
the Oregon grand jury was in session in the city of 
Portland, composed of men drawn by lot from all 
over the State, and that grand jury urged the repeal 
of all those laws — the Timber and Stone Act, the 
Desert Land Act, and the Commutation Clause, and 
sent a memorial to the Public Lands Commission to 
that effect. Now the grand jury has had some busi- 
ness with Mr. Hermann since that time. 

I understand that Mr. Williamson is not here, and 
I do not know where he is. I did see an article in an 
Oregon paper charging that he put up the money 
himself for some fellow to buy a lot of worthless school 
land, and then they tried to get it into a forest reserve 
and failed and Williamson lost his money. 

I am lifting the sheet off the corpse a little, but I 
don't think it will do any harm. If you don't have these 
cold, hard facts impressed upon you by somebody you 
are not going to accomplish anything. 

If you want to do something, go ahead and talk to 
your member of Congress and get him to help to get 
the House of Representatives to carry the public lands 
legislation right straight over the heads of the com- 
mittee. 

They passed one land bill at the last session of 
Congress, a bill throwing away thousands and hun- 
dreds of thousands of acres of lands, in tracts of 640 
acres, in western Nebraska, which should have been 
retained and trees planted on it to be used in the 
mines of South Dakota, and of the whole Rocky 
Mountain region. Nebraska sold its birthright for 
a mess of pottage when it allowed the Kinkaid bill 
to become a law. The whole scheme for 640-acre 
homesteads is a rank deception and offers a premium 
for fraud. 



346 Procejedings of the: 

There are a number of other things that I have in 
my mind to suggest that ought to be done : 

One is to pass the Appalachian Forest Reserve bill, 
which is ready to be passed. 

Another is to stop now and for all time all exchanges 
of lands in forest reserves for other lands. If the 
Government needs any such lands let it buy them and 
pay for them their fair value and no more. All lieu 
land scrip should be called in and cancelled and no 
more ever issued under any circumstances. The 
forest lieu land exchange law should be repealed. 

And if this session of Congress adjourns without 
the bill being passed by the House, which has passed 
the Senate, repealing the Timber and Stone Act, every 
member of the Public Lands Committee, who voted 
for delay, ought to be held up to popular obloquy and 
whipped at the cart's tail with a lash that would make 
them feel the full weight of an outraged national public 
sentiment. 

They are not liable to punishment criminally, but 
they are morally responsible for every fraud committed 
under the Timber and Stone Act since they shelved the 
bill passed by the Senate in the last session of Congress 
to repeal it. 

But it is not enough merely to repeal the Timber 
and Stone Act. Every acre of public forest lands or 
brush or woodlands which conserve a water supply 
should be at once embraced in permanent forest 
reserves, the title to be always retained by the national 
government, and the stumpage only of matured timber 
to be sold. 

The whole great plains region should be studied and 
developed as a vast area which can be transformed 
from a semi-arid region to one of great fertility and 
more humid climate by the planting of immense areas, 



American Forkst Congress 347 

hundreds of thousands of acres, of new forests by the 
national government on the wide level prairies and 
bare, rolling foot-hills which are now supposed to be 
among the waste places of the land and only fit for 
grazing ground for a few stray cattle and sheep. 

It is the vast possibilities of forest planting and tim- 
ber production in this region that makes it almost a 
crime against future generations to part with the land 
in its present condition to stockmen under such a 
scheme as the Kinkaid bill for the creation of large 
grazing estates in private ownership. 

The mining and transportation interests, more im- 
mediately than any other, ought to oppose this 640-acre 
homestead idea anywhere in the great plains or Rocky 
Mountain States, and help to inaugurate a great 
national policy of planting new forests, not only to 
furnish wood and timber for the mines, and railroad 
ties and timber for railroad construction and repair, 
but to conserve and increase the rainfall, regulate the 
flow of the rivers, stop floods and furnish water for 
irrigation. 

In all those Western States, the State has the power 
to form districts for local public improvements, such 
as irrigation districts, sanitary districts, drainage dis- 
tricts, or levee districts, and I, for one, do not believe 
that it is the right policy that the national government 
should assume the burden of protecting from fire 
forests now owned by men who have gotten them 
from the Government for one-tenth of their value. 
The State and nation should cooperate to form forestry 
districts and have assessments levied on all private 
lands in the district, and every acre, whether in public 
or private ownership, should contribute its proportion 
to the cost of preserving it from fire. 

There is one more thing I am going to urge as a 



34^ Proceedings of the 

mere matter of personal opinion. In making the sug- 
gestion I do not speak for California or for the Na- 
tional Irrigation Association, but for myself alone. I 
have been all my life a republican, and in my earlier 
years advocated the republican doctrine of a tariff for 
protection in many political campaigns in my native 
State of California from the Oregon line to Mexico; 
but because I believe in preserving our industries and 
not in destroying them, I believe that in order to 
preserve the forest industries of this nation, we should 
repeal every tariff law imposing a tariff upon the 
products of the forests whether timber or wood or 
wood pulp, at any rate for a limited number of years, 
and until we have planted forests enough to annually 
harvest from our own forests all the wood and timber 
we use in any one year. 



STATISTICAL RELATION BETWEEN 
FORESTRY AND MINING 

{Impromptu Address) 

BY 
DR. DAVID T. DAY 

United States Geological Survey 

T^ HE relations of the mining industry to timber 
supplies and the consequently necessary forest 
culture, have been stated many times and many ways 
so that the views on this subject are not novel, neither 
are they clear. They are not clear because of 
fragmentary statements made largely from very differ- 
ent viewpoints by miners and by foresters. Further, 
during the few years in which this subject has been 
discussed the relations have been changing. 

The mining company is recognized as a good cus- 
tomer by the lumberman and by the preserver of 
forests he is recognized as a wanton destroyer and a 
deadly foe. 

The miner has established his reputation as a good 
customer to the lumberman and he is daily becoming 
a better customer. This is because mine timber seldom 
costs more than lo per cent, of the cost of the ore, and 
the large consumers want the best and can easily afford 
to pay good prices for it. He can afford to send 
farther for his supply than most other customers. He 
is much in the same category as the railroad, except 
that frequently poor timber will last longer than it 
needs to last in a mine, and this is never the case with 
ties. The miner outran the railroads as a timber con- 
sumer, for it was stated here yesterday that a forest 
reserve of half a million acres would (properly man- 
aged) furnish the United States with ties. I doubt 



350 Proceedings o^ the 

if 10,000,000 acres would suffice to keep the miners 
going. 

We have no accurate knowledge of the amount of 
timber used in a year in the mines. But we do know 
that it requires about a cubic foot for each ton of 
anthracite, say 70,000,000 cubic feet per year, some- 
what less for each ton of bituminous, say 250,000,000 
cubic feet yearly. Iron ore needs at least 20,000,000 
feet, precious metal mining needs a cubic foot for each 
cube of gold, such as I have here, or say 75,000,000 
cubic feet, or say 400,000,000 cubic feet a year for the 
whole mining industry. 

As a deadly foe to the forester the reputation of the 
miner is losing his former picturesque position, as fast 
as many of the sensational stories of the miner's 
depravity cease to represent present conditions, and 
pass with old pioneer conditions into the legends of old 
days. 

Foremost among these dear old classic legends is 
that of the prospector who burns off the forest to get 
rid of the undergrowth so he can more easily discover 
his hidden treasure. Of course, prospectors include 
every sort of man, even the kind so foolish as to resort 
to such methods, but such men are disclaimed by the 
profession and in no way characterize the prospectors. 
I doubt if any species of tramp ever traverses the 
forest who uses such thoroughly trained care in ex- 
tinguishing every spark of fire he kindles as the genuine 
life-time prospector. He is accustomed to use every 
mark of changing vegetation to guide him in looking 
for changes in rock and soil conditions. He wants 
trees for landmarks if nothing more, and the only 
places where vegetation is so dense that burning off 
would compensate for the loss of guiding marks is in 
regions so wet that you could not build a forest fire 
with kerosene. 



American Forest Congress 351 

The main reason why the miner is no longer a foe 
to forest protection, is on account of two influences at 
work upon him. First, the missionary work of the 
foresters has converted him from wantonness in cut- 
ting timber. The mines are growing larger and less 
of them, there are fewer mining superintendents to 
educate and they are men of high grade. But most 
significant is a changing condition in mining practice 
by which the mining company falls into the same cate- 
gory as the lumberman as regards forestry. The 
change is this, the mining company cuts a continually 
lessening percentage of its own timber and buys corre- 
spondingly more from a distance. This increased 
attention to their own specialty of mining and buying 
their supplies of all kinds, especially their timber, from 
outside agencies is as marked a development as any 
othar kind of industrial specialization and is as greatly 
aided by increased facilities for transporting supplies 
from considerable distances. 

The timber merchant will in the future stand between 
the forester and the mining company. This is fortu- 
nate, especially in one way. There is no more difficult 
task than trying to educate the average mining man into 
any attribute of patience such as planting trees for his 
successor to use. His whole training is in the line of 
getting out all his ore with the greatest possible speed — 
to work out the deposit and go somewhere else. 

Frankly, the mining company often has been and 
occasionally still may be, worse than the man who 
skins a country, the miner disembowels it and leaves 
an absolute desert above and below. If the miner can 
be taught by forestry methods something of conserva- 
tism in rushing his mineral to market, the whole 
country will be better oflf. 

Further, it seems that as the friends of good govern- 



352 Proceedings o? the 

ment all citizens may take another lesson from the 
Government's attitude to the public forest lands, and 
just as the general people's valuable forest assets are 
being set apart for careful husbandry in forest reserves, 
so the citizens may well insist that our public mineral 
lands have ceased to serve a useful purpose as a bait to 
immigration. It is no longer necessary nor good public 
policy for the Government to give away practically free 
to the mine promoter valuable coal, oil, gas lands, and 
also lands where valuable metalliferous deposits may 
be reasonably looked for. 

The prospector is no longer greatly aided by such 
laws. He can be helped much more by governmental 
cooperation and joint ownership. It seems timely that 
the same wise regulations adopted for the sale and 
lease of lands belonging to the Indians should be ap- 
plied to lands belonging to the people as a whole, and 
it is to be hoped that Death Valley, many regions in 
eastern Utah, in the Rocky Mountain regions, may 
soon become Government mineral reserves. 



PART VII 

NATIONAL AND STATE FOREST POLICY 



THE WORK OF THE BUREAU OF 
FORESTRY 

BY 

OVERTON W. PRICE 

Associate Forester, United States Department of Agriculture 

I N THIS opportunity to say a word to you about the 
work of the Bureau of Forestry, I want to go a 
Httle further than merely to catalogue its present 
achievement. Because it seems to me that your chief 
interest lies not merely in what the Bureau has already 
done. It lies rather in the power of the Bureau for 
future accomplishment, which its organization and its 
point of view make possible. For although in the light 
of its results, the achievement of the Bureau is tangible 
and far-reaching, it marks only a small beginning, in 
the light of the work not yet done. And since the 
great bulk of the forest work is ahead of us, I want 
particularly to indicate how the policy of the Bureau 
enables it to assist in the practical solution of the forest 
problems still before the great industries represented 
here. 

Six years ago the reorganization of the Bureau took 
place. At that time, the foundation of an individual, 
a state, and a national forest policy had in part been 
laid, but its practical application had scarcely begun. 
It was the attitude of the Division then, as it is the 
attitude of the Bureau now, that the printing press and 
the lecture room are not in themselves adequate to get 
forestry generally into effect in this country ; that the 
urgent need is practical field work with which to meet 
great forest problems on their own ground, and that 
the results of this field work, the practical solution of 



356 Proceedings o^ the 

these forest problems, should be pubHshed and distrib- 
uted for the benefit of all — therein, as the Bureau sees 
it, lies its province, its duty, and its great opportunity 
for usefulness. Under this policy, the Division became 
a Bureau. Above all, it is the policy under which it 
has been able to attack effectively the forest problem 
in all its parts. 

Since its reorganization, the Bureau of Forestry has 
directed its earnest and constant endeavor along these 
four main lines : 

First. It cooperates by practical assistance and 
advice in forest work which not only benefits individual 
cooperators but is of help to many others. 

Second. It attacks, independently, those urgent for- 
est problems whose solution by private enterprise is 
impossible, and thus becomes a national duty. 

Third. It renders all assistance within its power in 
the best use of the federal forest lands ; and finally, 

Fourth. It publishes and distributes the results of 
its investigations for the benefit of all. 

The cooperative work of the bureau began in Octo- 
ber, 1898, with the offer of assistance to private owners 
in the handling of their own lands. From this begin- 
ning it has broadened as the direct result of an insistent 
demand, until it now offers assistance not only in the 
preparation of working plans, but also in tree-planting, 
either for commercial purposes or for protection, and 
in discovering the most conservative and profitable 
methods for the use of the products of the forest. The 
cooperative state forest studies, which offer a great 
and increasing field for usefulness, have also grown 
out of the policy of the Bureau's cooperation with 
private owners. 

The cooperative work in all its branches has had two 
important and tangible results : Not only has it brought 



American Forest Congress 357 

about the use of new and better methods on the 
ground, but, above and beyond the benefit to the indi- 
vidual cooperator, this work, through the pubHcation 
of its results, has been a far-reaching influence in fur- 
thering that understanding of the purpose and methods 
of forestry, without which its general application is 
impossible. Thus, the results of the cooperative work 
cannot be measured by the great areas of forest land 
now under management as the result of working plans 
prepared by the Bureau, or the three hundred and 
thirty-four planting plans which the Bureau has pre- 
pared for lands in fifty-two states and territories. 
In its cooperation with railroads, the Bureau, at an 
expense truly insignificant in comparison with the 
value of the results, has developed facts regarding the 
preservative treatment of ties and construction timbers 
and the profitable use of woods of inferior kinds whose 
value is beyond estimate both to the great transporta- 
tion systems themselves and in its decrease in the drain 
upon our forests. In its cooperative state forest 
studies the Bureau's work has in each instance had a 
definite and tangible result in preparing a solid basis 
for a comprehensive state forest policy. But each 
piece of cooperative work, whether with the individual, 
the corporation, or the state ; whether in tree-planting, 
in working plans, or in studies of forest products, is 
justified not merely by the direct benefit to the 
cooperator, but by the acquisition of knowledge for the 
common good, in which its widest usefulness lies. 

To the statement that this cooperative work, valu- 
able as its results may be, falls properly not within the 
sphere of the Government, but to the private forester, 
the answer is that the Bureau of Forestry took up this 
work only because no private foresters were available 
to do it. It is work which the Bureau has froir ^he 



358 Procke:dings o^ the 

beginning recognized as purely temporary in its char- 
acter. To postpone it until the private forester was in 
the field would have meant that the better use of our 
forests would have been for a long time delayed. The 
area in woodlots and timber tracts in this country is 
approximately five hundred million acres. It is from 
them that our future timber supply must chiefly come. 
And the inauguration of better methods in their man- 
agement is thus a national duty until the private 
forester is present in sufficient numbers to carry the 
work. When that time comes, the Bureau will step 
aside. As a matter of fact, the Bureau has by its 
cooperative work not only instituted better methods 
in the use of the forest, but it has hastened, by making 
clear the business advantages of these methods, the 
growth of forestry as a commercial enterprise, and 
hence the employment of the private forester. And 
right there it is significant that, with very few excep- 
tions, the private foresters employed in this country 
to-day owe their work either to the recommendation 
of the Bureau of Forestry or as the direct result of its 
cooperative work. 

The second line of endeavor which it is the duty of 
the Bureau of Forestry to follow is that of independent 
investigation. This embraces the solution of those 
urgent forest problems which are beyond the scope, 
the means, or the trained knowledge of the individual, 
but which confront him, and through him materially 
afifect the development of the great industries. Just 
as it is the duty of the Government through the United 
States Geological Survey to map this country, so is it 
also the duty of the Government through the Bureau 
of Forestry to put in the hands of the people knowledge 
essential to the best use of the forest, and as unobtain- 
able through private enterprise only as are the maps. 



American Forest Congress 359 

The Bureau of Plant Industry, of Animal Industry, of 
Soils — the scientific work of the Government through- 
out — conducts studies national in their importance 
whose solution is beyond the power of the individual. 
In exactly the same way, the Bureau of Forestry 
attacks those forest problems necessary to the perma- 
nent prosperity of all industries dependent upon wood 
and water. Under this policy the Bureau is conducting 
studies of commercial trees, since the published results 
of these studies serve as. a basis for working plans, as 
a source of useful information to lumbermen, and as a 
valuable contribution to our knowledge of American 
forests. It is conducting independent studies of forest 
fires as a means for the solution of the urgent national 
problems which they present, both in the form of legis- 
lation which will be effective against forest fires and 
in methods for their prevention and control. 

In its timber tests the Bureau of Forestry is supply- 
ing an urgent need of fuller technical knowledge of 
the strength of our commercial timbers, and is thus 
paving the way for economy in their use as well as in 
the woods. 

In the preparation of forest yield and volume tables 
the Bureau is laying the foundation for conservative 
forest management in all parts of this country. In its 
forest maps, its dendrological studies, and in many 
other ways, it is equipping the great industries depen- 
dent upon the forest with knowledge essential to their 
development. 

In the third line of its endeavor, the rendering of 
all assistance within its power in the best use of the 
Government forest lands, the Bureau is to the full 
extent of the province which legislation has entrusted 
to it giving assistance and advice in the management 
not only of the national reserves, but also of Indian 



360 Proce:e:dings of the: 

and military reservations. Briefly outlined, this assist- 
ance has been as follows : 

On December 7, 1899, the Secretary of the Interior 
requested the Secretary of Agriculture for advice upon 
technical questions envolved in the administration of 
the reserves. The work of the Bureau of Forestry 
under this request has increased steadily in volume and 
scope, until at present practically all technical questions 
involved in the administration of the reserves are 
referred to it. 

During the past two years practically all of the 
recommendations for new forest reserves and changes 
in the boundaries of existing forest reserves either 
originated with or were submitted directly by the 
Bureau of Forestry. Since it took up this line of 
work the Bureau has examined 130 separate areas 
proposed as forest reserves or as additions to existing 
reserves. 

Regulations for grazing recommended by the Bureau 
are now in effect on two fore^ reserves in Utah and 
on four forest reserves in Arizona. 

Six members of the Bureau were loaned to the for- 
estry division of the General Land Office for periods 
of from one year to fourteen months (1902-1903). 
One of these members was chief of that division, two 
were inspectors, and two were head rangers. 

Under the request of the Secretary of the Interior, 
studies have been made of several Indian reservations, 
and recommendations submitted for their forest man- 
agement. The Bureau has also prepared detailed 
working plans for the Prescott, Black Hills, Big Horn, 
and Priest River forest reserves. 

To sum up, the principles and practice recommended 
by the Bureau to govern the administration of the 
national forest reserves have been approved by the 



American Forest Congress 361 

Department of the Interior. The Bureau is now the 
recognized source of information upon the suitabiHty 
of lands for forest reserves or of changes in the boun- 
daries of existing reserves, for working plans for the 
management of the reserves, and for special reports 
upon grazing and other matters involved in their 
administration. In no case has the Bureau mixed in 
the details of reserve management. It has dealt exclu- 
sively with matters of policy. 

In its work under the Morris bill the Bureau has 
proved that conservative lumbering pays in the pine 
region of northern Minnesota. It was charged with 
drawing up the regulations for conservative lumbering 
and with their enforcement upon lands which, after 
they haye been lumbered, will constitute the Minnesota 
National Forest Reserve. The result has proved that 
the Bureau of Forestry can institute and conduct 
successfully large administrative duties in forest man- 
agement. 

In the fourth branch of its work, the publication of 
the results of its investigations for the benefit of all, 
the Bureau has distributed well on toward 2,000,000 
copies of its bulletins, circulars, and reports. I do not 
wish to inflict too much statistical information regard- 
ing publications upon you. But the distribution of 
publications is in large measure a test of the Bureau's 
usefulness, and the demand for them a proof of the 
appreciation of its work. And I want to give you 
enough facts to show, both that the publications are 
going out and that they are being read and used. 
Although the regular editions have been largely 
increased in order to meet the demand, no less than 
seventy-seven reprints have been required to satisfy it. 
A notable example of the scope of this demand is The 
Primer of Forestry, of which the first edition of 35,000 



362 Prockedings of the 

was authorized by congressional action. Two editions 
of 10,000 each have since been printed, and since they, 
too, proved insufficient, a Farmers' Bulletin edition 
became necessary. Of this, 170,000, in eight editions, 
have been printed, making the total issue of the Primer 
to the present time 225,000 copies. Another instance 
is The Woodman's Handbook, a compilation of log 
scales and rules for forest measurements. The first 
edition of 15,000 was not off the press before the 
necessity for an additional supply was realized, and 
before the demand began to slacken, 25,000 copies, in 
three editions, were printed. The circulars giving the 
Bureau's offers of cooperation have passed through the 
press sixteen times in all, with a total issue of 123,000. 

To sum up, the Bureau is not only the direct and 
prevailing force behind the forest movement in this 
country, but it is furthering the application of those 
new and better methods on the ground without which 
the broadest, the most enlightened forest policy will 
utterly fail. It has, in my judgment, reached its pres- 
ent achievement, and it possesses its power of future 
achievement, as the direct result not only of an ade- 
quate organization and a comprehensive point of view, 
but above all because it keeps the practical aspect of 
its work constantly before it; because its policy is not 
one of arbitrary interference, but to bring about a 
relation between the forest and the interests dependent 
upon it which develops the highest usefulness and the 
highest permanent profit from them both. 

One of the most gratifying features of the work of 
the Bureau, full of promise for its further usefulness, 
is, that in spite of the overwhelming demands upon it 
and of the utter impossibility, with the men and the 
money at its disposal, to meet all these demands, the 
technical standard of its work has grown steadily 



American Forest Congress 363 

higher. The Bureau has fallen into no rut of routine 
in field work. Its methods in the field and in the office 
as well are thus showing year by year improvement 
which corresponds directly with the added experience 
of its men and the added funds at its disposal. The 
net result is a constant gain in effectiveness. 

I have said very little about the past achievement of 
the Bureau because you have that in its bulletins, in its 
reports, and you find it in the woods on the ground. 
But unless I have entirely failed, the points I hope I 
have made clear are these: that the policy of the 
Bureau is to help every man in the use of the forest 
or of its products; that the Bureau stands ready to 
take up with you the solution of the forest problem 
confronting you, whatever it may be, and to take it up 
not academically, not theoretically, but practically, with 
due regard not only for the preservation of the forest 
but for the business advantage of the interests depen- 
dent upon it. That point of view has alone made the 
present achievement of the Bureau possible. It is a 
guarantee of still wider usefulness in the future, 
because it means that you and the Bureau can begin 
the larger work ahead, can face new forest problems 
as they come, not singly, as a purely governmental 
enterprise on the one side, or by private endeavor on 
the other, but together, in active and effective accord 
on the same ground. 



WORK OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
IN MAPPING THE RESERVES 

BY 

CHARLES D. WALCOTT 

Director of the United States Geological Survey 

I HAVE been asked many times during the last seven 
years how it came about that the Geological 
Survey v^as taking part in matters pertaining to the 
Government forest reserves; and I am glad to have 
the opportunity to give to this notable Congress some 
of the reasons for the activity of the Survey in this 
direction, and to record what has been done by it in 
surveying and examining the reserves. 

Let me first speak very briefly of the influences and 
events that led to the Survey's taking up the work 
assigned to it by the Congress of the United States. 
Not many years ago one of our leading foresters said 
that, apparently, the forest policy of the Government 
had been to get rid of the land and that of the people 
to get rid of the timber ; but within the last decade the 
country has awakened to a realization of the vast 
importance of its woodlands. Perhaps most influential 
in this awakening were the American Forestry Associ- 
ation and the Division of Forestry of the Department 
of Agriculture, under the leadership of Dr. Bernhard 
E. Fernow. From these organizations there came 
many reports, essays, and lectures on the subject, and 



American Forest Congress 365 

these had a strong influence in creating the public 
sentiment that at last manifested itself in the passage, 
on March 3, 1891, of an act granting authority to the 
President to set aside as public reservations public 
lands bearing forests, wholly or in part covered with 
timber or undergrowth. (Stat. L., vol. 26, p. 1103, 
sec. 24.) Under this act seventeen forest reserves 
were established prior to September 28, 1893, aggre- 
gating in area 17,564,800 acres. 

The establishment of these reserves did not excite 
any special approval or disapproval of the policy, 
except as some local interest was affected favorably 
or unfavorably. In the latter case, little attention was 
given the matter by the parties directly concerned, for 
there was no real protection of the reserves by patrol, 
and the cutting of timber and the destruction by fires 
went on as before. But by executive proclamations 
of February 22, 1897, based upon recommendations of 
the Forestry Commission of the National Academy 
of Sciences, there were established thirteen additional 
forest reserves, containing an aggregate of 21,379,840 
acres. This action was followed by strong opposition 
to the policy, especially in the Northwestern States, in 
which many of the reserves were situated. 

In the letter recommending the establishment of the 
forest reserves the Forestry Commission stated, in 
effect, that it had purposely recommended very large 
reserves in order to create a public sentiment which 
would cause Congress to enact laws securing the 
proper administration of the reserves. The result of 
establishing the reserves more than met the anticipa- 
tions of the commission that legislation would follow, 
owing to the pressure of the people on their repre- 
sentatives in Congress. The first storm of protest 
came mainly from South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, 



366 Proce;e:dings o^ the 

and Washington. Early in March, Congress inserted 
in the Sundry Civil Bill an amendment revoking the 
forest-reserve proclamations of February 22, 1897, and 
repealing the authority for setting aside public forested 
lands as reserves ; but the bill failed, because President 
Cleveland did not sign it ; and when the new Congress 
assembled on March 15, 1897, the agitation against 
the reserves was resumed. 

My predecessor. Major J. W. Powell, was much 
interested in the forests of the country, but did not 
take an active part in shaping the policy of the Govern- 
ment control or administration of forest lands. I had 
kept in touch with the general movement for the 
preservation of the forests, and with the commission 
of the National Academy of Sciences, of which Mr. 
Gifford Pinchot was secretary ; also with the members 
of Congress who were especially interested in the com- 
mission's recommendations, and knew the sentiment 
these recommendations had developed. After the 
attack on the policy of forest reserves in the spring of 
1897, I found that the National Academy commission 
could not take further action, and that nothing was 
being done by the forestry officers of the Government 
toward urging constructive legislation and combating 
the movement to repeal the law and return the forest 
reserves to the open public domain. After consulta- 
tion with a number of senators from the Western 
States, I drew up, at the suggestion of Senator Petti- 
grew, of South Dakota, an amendment providing for 
the survey and administration of the forest reserves. 
The administrative features of the amendment were 
based upon previously proposed but not enacted legis- 
lation, and upon the recommendations of the commis- 
sion of the National Academy of Sciences, modified to 
meet conditions in April, 1897. The preliminary draft 



American Forkst Congress 367 

was then thoroughly examined by and discussed with 
Senator Pettigrew.* The amendment met with the ap- 
proval of the Secretary of the Interior and of the Presi- 
dent, and it was introduced in the Senate in a modified 
form by Senator Pettigrew on April 6, 1897, as a pro- 
posed amendment to the Sundry Civil Bill and was re- 
ferred to the Committee on Appropriations. On April 8, 
1897, Senator Pettigrew ofifered the amendment as 
originally prepared, and it was referred to the Com- 



*HoTEiv Victoria, New York City, 
January ii, 1905. 
Charles D. Walcott, Esq., 

U. S. Geological Survey, 

Washington, D. C. 
My Dear Sir: 

Your letter of January ist has just reached me, too late, I 
suppose, for me to be of use to you in connection with the 
Forestry Congress. I think your account of the amendment 
to the Sundry Civil Bill w^ith regard to the administration of 
the forests of the United States is substantially correct. I 
was the author of the legislation of 1891, authorizing the 
President to set apart forest reservations out of the public 
domain, and therefore always in favor of a policy which should 
protect these forests and perpetuate them, so that they would 
grow better year by year. 

I studied with great care Napoleon's method for administer- 
ing the forests of France; I also investigated the English 
policy in India, and the policy pursued by the Austrian Gov- 
ernment, and I reviewed and slightly amended the suggestions 
which you made to what is now the existing law. I remember 
my colleague, Senator Moody, made such modifications and 
amendments as it seemed to me were not advisable, and that 
you and I together went over the manuscript and struck them 
out; that the result of our joint labor was the law as it now 
stands, under which the forests are administered. 

For my part I should be pleased if all the forest lands, and 
all the other lands now owned by the Government of the 
United States, were withdrawn from sale and were admin- 
istered by the Government, so that the title w«uld remain 
forever in the Government for the benefit of the people of the 
United States. Very truly yours, 

(Signed) R. F. PETTIGREW. 



368 Proceedings oi^ the 

mittee on Forest Reserves and the Protection of Game. 
The amendment of April 8 was reported back to the 
Senate by the latter committee with favorable recom- 
mendation. 

When the Sundry Civil Bill was under consideration 
in the Senate on May 5, 1897, Mr. Pettigrew offered 
the amendment of April 8 as an amendment to an 
appropriation for the Geological Survey. (Congres- 
sional Record, vol. 30, p. 899.) After discussion in 
the Senate, it was accepted on May 6 (Congressional 
Record, p. 908-925) and soon after went to the Con- 
ference Committee of the Senate and House on the 
Sundry Civil Bill, where minor amendments were 
made to the provision for the administration of the 
forest reserves. On May 27 the Senate agreed to the 
conference report (Congressional Record, p. 1278- 
1285), and on June i the House of Representatives 
accepted it. (Congressional Record, p. 1 397-1 401.) 
On June 4 the President approved the Sundry Civil 
Bill, and thus completed the legislation providing for 
the survey and administration of the forest reserves 
of the United States. 

The period from March 4, when President Cleveland 
killed the scheme to revoke all forest reserve procla- 
mations, to June 4, when President McKinley signed 
the act containing the forest reserve legislation, was 
a strenuous one for those directly interested in the 
protection and utilization of the public forests. Con- 
ferences were held at the office of the Secretary of the 
Interior, Cornelius N. Bliss, and many hours of anxious 
suspense followed the formulation of a plan that met 
with the approbation of the department and of the 
members of Congress from the western states directly 
affected by the forest reserve policy. The new law 
was not ideal, but it was all that could be obtained 
under the conditions then existing. 



American Forest Congress 369 

The administration of the forest reserves was placed 
in charge of Commissioner Binger Hermann, of the 
General Land Office, and continued in his charge until 
1903, when Commissioner Richards succeeded him. 
The surveys and examinations of the reserves were, 
by the act, placed under the Geological Survey. 

The survey of the reserves was begun in 1897 and 
has continued to the present time. The results, briefly 
stated, are as follows: 

Five reserves have been completely mapped — the 
Black Hills, South Dakota-Wyoming ; Bighorn, Wyo- 
ming; Teton,Wyoming (now a part of the Yellowstone 
Reserve); Santa Rita and Prescott, Arizona; and 
work has been commenced in twenty-nine other 
reserves. 

The boundary lines of the Black Hills, Bighorn, 
Aquarius, Logan, and Pocatello reserves have been 
completely surveyed and marked with iron posts; also 
parts of the Lewis and Clarke, Washington, Mount 
Ranier, Madison and Payson, and Black Mesa and 
Mount Graham reserves have been surveyed, com- 
prising 1,328 miles of boundary line. In connection 
with this, there have been surveyed 1,976 miles of 
standard and subdivision lines of various kinds, for 
which notes and plats have been filed in the General 
Land Office, as required by law. 

Reconnaissance maps have been made of the entire 
Lewis and Clarke, Bitter Root, and Priest River re- 
serves, comprising an area of over 12,000 square miles. 

The total area mapped for publication as regular 
atlas sheets, on scales of one or two miles to the inch, 
in and adjacent to forest reserves, is 48,963 square 
miles (not including 12,072 square miles of reconnais- 
sance maps), in connection with which 12,679 niiles 
of levels were run and 2,983 permanent bench marks 



370 Proceedings oi' the 

were established. This area comprises sixty-seven 
whole and five partial atlas sheets. 

In the act of Congress creating the Geological 
Survey the director is charged, among other things, 
with the classification of the public lands. The work 
done under the forest reserve legislation was therefore 
in strict accord with one of the original purposes of 
the Survey. 

Cruisings by private parties for private purposes 
have been made in this country for many years, but 
the work here briefly described is the first attempt to 
estimate and report upon the forests on a large scale 
for the information of the public. 

The field force employed in the examination of 
forests has varied in different years, and most of the 
men have been employed for a part of the year only. 
This work being the first attempt to accurately examine 
and appraise the forests of this country, it was neces- 
sary both to build up an organization and to originate 
plans and methods for field work and for presentation 
of the results in reports and maps. 

The work consists in the classification of lands as 
arable, pasture, desert, w^ooded, and timbered, timber 
land being defined as that bearing timber of merchant- 
able size and quality, while wooded land bears only 
trees of sizes and species suitable for firewood, posts, 
poles, etc. The timber land has been roughly cruised 
to learn the approximate stand of timber, with the 
stand per acre ; the species of trees, with the proportion 
which each species bears to the total forest, and the 
average height, diameter, age, and condition of the 
trees. The lands on which the timber has been cut or 
culled have also been defined, and the amount and 
character of the undergrowth, with its various species, 
and the depth of humus and litter on the forest floor, 
have been examined. 



American Forest Congress 371 

The subject of fires, both ancient and recent, with 
their effects upon the present forest, has been carefully 
studied, and the accounts of large fires in times past 
have been recorded. A study has been made of the 
streams as means of transporting lumber, and the lay 
of the country has been considered with a view to the 
building of roads and railroads for lumbering pur- 
poses. The question of existing and future markets 
for the forest products has also been studied. The 
effects of grazing, especially the grazing of sheep, upon 
the present forests, and their reproduction, have been 
carefully investigated. The purpose of these exam- 
inations has been to ascertain the economic value of 
the lands and the forests. 

Reports on the areas examined have been prepared 
and published, the earlier ones in volumes of the 
annual reports of the Survey and the later ones as 
professional papers. These reports are illustrated by 
maps showing the classification of the lands and the 
stand of timber per acre upon the forested lands. For 
this purpose the atlas sheets of the Survey are used, if 
completed. The reports are also illustrated by dia- 
grams showing the stand of timber per township and 
the proportional distribution of the species represented. 
The map and the diagram together tell a large part of 
the story of the reserve. 

During the last eight years there has been examined 
a total of about 75,000,000 acres, or 117,000 square 
miles. This area includes nearly all the reserves in 
the country, besides great extents of land adjoining 
them, and other regions which have been withheld 
from settlement with the expectation of reserving 
them. 

Among these regions one was examined jointly with 
the Bureau of Forestry of the Department of Agricul- 



372 Procekdings of the: 

ture and the Geological Survey of North Carolina. It 
is a region of about 8,000 square miles in the Southern 
Appalachian Mountains. A report on this region will 
soon appear, and it will be particularly interesting 
because it is the first study of its kind ever made of 
the southern forests, which are characterized by a 
great variety and mixture of species. 

A branch of the Geological Survey which has been 
much concerned with the forests and their preservation 
is the hydrographic. It is now understood by every- 
body that the occurrence and control of waters above 
and below the earth's surface are largely dependent 
on woodland conditions. The protection of the forests 
and woodlands is one of the first matters to be consid- 
ered in any water-supply problem, and the study of 
the quantity and quality of water available for irriga- 
tion, power, and domestic and municipal purposes 
touches the domain of the forester. 

In 1888 the director of the Survey was authorized 
to investigate the extent to which the arid lands might 
be reclaimed. Surveys of reservoir sites and of the 
catchment basins of streams were begun, and it was 
seen that it would be necessary to withdraw and hold 
permanently many of the forested areas above the 
reservoirs at the sources of the rivers. At all times 
there has been close cooperation between the engineers 
engaged in studies of water supply and the men inves- 
tigating the forest reserves. 

Upon the passage of the Reclamation Act of June 
17, 1902, and the organization of the Reclamation 
Service as a part of the Geological Survey, the 
question of the extent and preservation of forest 
reserves assumed increased importance. The scientific 
investigations of water supply were supplemented by 
authority to build great works, and there followed the 



American Forest Congress 373 

necessity of protecting these works by every available 
natural resource. These great works might be seri- 
ously injured if individuals were permitted to come in 
above them and secure vested rights inimical to the 
larger irrigation interests of the country ; therefore the 
Reclamation Service has asked that large areas of 
public land embracing forests or woodlands be with- 
drawn and held permanently, so that there might be 
no interference with the larger development of the 
waters. 

In mapping the forest reserves and in recommending 
their boundaries all the large matters of this character 
have been taken into consideration. Frequently an 
individual, looking at the matter from his standpoint, 
is inclined to criticise the drawing of boundaries and 
to assert that too much land has been included ; but if 
he would study the problem from the community or 
public standpoint he would find that this land is of 
great importance in connection with the control of the 
water supply necessary to the development of a recla- 
mation project. 

By carefully and systematically permitting the 
younger growth to accumulate, and perhaps by seeding 
the steeper barren slopes, it will be possible to reduce 
the destructive effects of the so-called cloudbursts or 
local storms which wash the loose soil into the reser- 
voirs or clog the hydraulic works. The beneficial 
effect of this protection is well understood and every 
reasonable effort is being made to bring about the best 
possible conditions in the catchment basins of the 
streams. 

Abundance of wood is one of the prime necessities 
for successful mining. There are four chief factors 
in the mining enterprise — the value of the ore, the cost 
of production, the cost of transportation, and the cost 

M 



374 Proce:e:dings oi^ the 

of reduction; and the sum of the last three must be 
less than the first, or the mine wil! be closed. Mining, 
properly understood, is a business in which the profits 
or losses are the result of the balance of these condi- 
tions, not an excavation of treasure whose enormous 
value renders other considerations insignificant. Now, 
in the three costs above enumerated, the principal 
elements are water and wood. 

The cost of production includes labor, power (for 
hoisting, drilling, etc.), the mine plant (including all 
the necessary buildings), timbering, and supplies. 
Where wood is scarce or absent the price of building 
is enormous; rents and fuel are high, and the price of 
labor must be correspondingly increased. Probably 
the highest wages paid to miners in the United States 
are paid in the desert; for example, in the camp of 
Tonopah, in Nevada, where everyone underground 
receives four dollars per day. In this camp also the 
cost of power for hoisting is very high ; the people 
are forced to use largely gasoline or petroleum, which 
must be brought a long distance with heavy transpor- 
tation charges. The cost of the plant is proportional, 
a moderate-sized frame building costing $15,000 to 
$30,000; so that stone and iron have been largely used 
in construction, at a burdensome cost. 

Timbering in most mines is an important factor. In 
the early history of the Georgetown (Colorado) mines, 
timbers were hauled by bull wagon from Iowa, until 
it was found that the native wood, though inferior, 
could yet be used. Vast quantities of wood are used 
for timbering in most large mining plants, and the 
price of the timber is one of the important factors in 
striking the balance of profit or loss. Thus the neigh- 
borhood of a forest and the character of the wood in 
that forest are of great importance. 



American Forest Congress 375 

As to the cost of transportation, that, too, is invari- 
ably increased, other things being equal, by the scarcity 
of wood. If the bringing in of supplies and the taking 
out of ores is done by wagon, the high price of labor 
above referred to brings up the cost of haulage ; if by 
rail, the heavy cost of ties for the road-bed and fuel 
for locomotives renders a high scale of charges una- 
voidable. 

The cost of reduction is, for a given quality of ore, 
almost entirely dependent upon wood and water. In 
many a somewhat remote mining district, if wood can 
be obtained for running a mill, the ore is profitable ; if 
not, the enterprise must be abandoned. At the desert 
camp of Silver Peak, in Nevada, vast quantities of 
fair-grade gold ore exist, suitable for stamp milling 
and amalgamation ; enough water is available for such 
mills, but the great cost of fuel has hitherto stunned 
mining operations. When an occasional mill-run is 
made, in an old mill in this locality, the high neigh- 
boring mountains are scoured for scrubby pine, much 
of which is brought miles on the backs of burros, with 
the result that after a run the balance is as apt to be 
on the loss side as on the profit. Such deposits in a 
wooded country like California would form the foun- 
dation of a great mining industry. 

The miner has a great and vital interest in the per- 
manent preservation of the forests and in their intel- 
ligent utilization, second only to that of the irrigation 
farmer. He should be one of the strongest supporters 
of the Government in its attempt to preserve our 
woodlands and make them useful to all interests. 

The saving of the wood of the living forests by the 
utilization of the lignites formed of the forests of 
Tertiary time is desirable if it can be done, and I have 
little doubt that it can and will be done ; it is only a 



376 PROCK:eDINGS O^ THE 

question of a relatively short period of time. The way 
to do it has been ascertained. It remains for enterprise 
and capital to develop and utilize the vast power resi- 
dent in the lignitic coals of the West. 

The Geological Survey has been conducting at the 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition a series of experiments 
in the combustion of coal and lignites.* This experi- 
mental work has been carried on under special author- 
ization of Congress for "testing and analyzing the 
coals and lignites of the United States to determine 
the most economical method for their utilization." One 
of the most interesting results brought out in the 
course of this investigation has been the practical 
demonstration of the method for using the large 
supplies of lignite which exist between the Mississippi 
River and the Rocky Mountain states, and which, on 
account of its high percentage of moisture, make most 
unsatisfactory fuel under ordinary processes of com- 
bustion. It has been shown, however, that the very 
qualities which appear to unfit this lignite for use by 
direct combustion tend toward the improvement of the 
quality of the gas made from it in the gas producer. 
In the manufacture of what is known as producer gas 
all of the combustible material in the coal fed into the 
producer is utilized. The quality of the gas obtained 
is measured by its value in British thermal units (B. T. 
U's.) One B. T. U. is the amount of heat required to 
raise one pound of water one degree in temperature 
Fahrenheit. Ordinary bituminous coals make pro- 



* This work has been in charge of a committee composed of 
the following members of the Geological Survey: Mr. E. W. 
Parker, Chairman, coal expert and statistician; Dr. J. A. 
Holmes, geologist and chief of Department of Mines and 
Metallurgy, St. L,ouis Exposition; Mr. M. R. Campbell, geolo- 
gist in charge of surveys in coal areas. 



American Forejst Congress 377 

ducer gas in which the British thermal units measure 
from 125 to 154 per cubic foot. It has been shown 
that the gas produced from the Hgnites of Colorado, 
North Dakota, and Texas ranges from 160 to 190 B. 
T. U.'s per cubic foot, and I have been informed that 
during a portion of the runs on one of the lignites from 
North Dakota as high as 216 B. T. U.'s were made in 
the gas. An average run of Texas lignite produced 
gas of a little less than 170 B. T. U.'s. 

In the operation of the coal-testing plant, the amount 
of electric horse power produced by the consumption 
of the coal by two different methods was ascertained. 
One of these was burned under boilers connected with 
the steam engine, which in turn was connected with a 
dynamo that transformed this power into electrical 
units. In the other case a quantity of the same coal 
was burned in a gas producer, the gas thus produced 
being used in a gas engine, and the power thus gen- 
erated being in like manner transformed into electrical 
units. By this means the amount of electrical power 
generated from the same coal or lignite under the two 
systems was easily compared, and it was found that 
in the case of the bituminous coal the economy of the 
gas engine over the steam engine ranged from 30 to 
considerably more than 50 per cent. Owing to the 
fact that the furnaces were not at the time suited to the 
use of lignite which disintegrates on exposure, attempts 
to use it under the boilers were unsatisfactory, whereas 
the quality of the gas produced from the same grade of 
lignites was from 20 to 25 per cent higher than that 
obtained from bituminous coal. This is partly offset 
by the fact that a larger amount of lignite is required 
to produce the same amount of gas, and it is also true 
at the present time that the installation of a gas pro- 
ducer and gas engine plant is more expensive than 



378 Proce:e:dings o? the 

that of a steam engine plant, and that the expense of 
operating the former is sHghtly higher; but to 
demonstrate that these Hgnites can be used at all in 
competition with the bituminous coals is of inestimable 
value in the industrial development of the Great Plains 
region. The utilization of the great lignite beds of 
this area should remove, or at least greatly reduce, the 
necessity of its drawing upon the forests of the region 
for fuel purposes. 

Tests made on the different grades of bituminous 
coals show not only a large gain in efficiency of the 
fuel in a gas producer plant over the steam plant, but 
especially they have demonstrated that with very dirty 
coals and those high in sulphur, results may be obtained 
that compare more or less favorably with the results 
obtained in the best type of steam plants using the 
expensive grades of soft coal. 

It seems possible that future work may go even a 
step farther and show that "slack" coal, with even a 
large proportion of impurities, may be converted into 
producer gas and used in a gas engine, thereby 
replacing much of the high grade fuels now in use. 
Indeed, the present indications are that the economy 
obtained in the gas producer plant is such that it is 
destined to be the coming mode of producing power 
in the future, and through this great saving the low 
grade coals of the country and especially those of the 
western half of the United States will be more and 
more extensively used. 

Of the cost of utilizing the lignites and bituminous 
coals in the manner outlined, and the distribution of 
the power obtained, permit me to say a few words in 
order that the practical business side of the matter 
may be laid before you. It is estimated that a gas 
producer plant with gas engines, foundations, and 



Ame:rican Fori:st Congress 379 

housings complete, capable of furnishing 15,000 horse 
power, would cost nearly $800,000. Such a plant- 
would not be provided with apparatus for the recovery 
of the bi-products from coal. With the recovery 
apparatus such a plant would cost, approximately, 
$175,000 additional. A steam-boiler plant with cross 
compound condensing engines, capable of producing 
the same amount of horse power, is estimated roughly 
to cost $70,000 less than the gas producer plant without 
the recovery apparatus, and $245,000 less than the gas 
producer plant with recovery appratus. The labor 
involved in the operation of a steam plant and a non- 
recovery gas producer plant would probably be slightly 
in favor of the former. 

Unfortunately, we have only incomplete comparative 
figures for the use of lignite in a plant of this kind, and 
the investigations at St. Louis have been almost of a 
pioneer nature on this line. But it is evident that 
either in the case of soft coal or lignite when used in 
the gas producer plant the saving in fuel would in a 
short time be more than sufficient to make up for any 
reasonable difference in the initial cost of that as com- 
pared with the initial cost of a steam plant of equal 
capacity. 

In the present state of development of apparatus for 
the generation and transmission of electric power, the 
limit of line voltage is placed at, approximately, 60,000 
volts, and at this voltage it is possible to transmit 
effectively electrical power at a distance of 250 miles. 
This means that a power plant established in the 
vicinity of coal mines can supply power to a territory 
having this distance of 250 miles for a radius, or, 
approximately, 200,000 square miles — more than four 
times the size of New York, and nearly twice the size 
of all the New England states and New York included. 



380 Procej^dings of the: 

Such a plant established, for instance, near the lignite 
mines of Milam or Robertson counties, in Texas, could 
supply light and power to the entire state, with the 
exception of the far northwestern and western corners. 

This brief sketch of the activities of the Geological 
Survey in matters directly and indirectly affecting the 
forests and woodlands of our country is given for the 
purpose of placing on record with this Congress what 
the Survey has been and is doing in this direction. 
The Survey is an investigating, constructive bureau of 
the Government, and desires to aid in every possible 
way in advancing the great work of preserving and 
utilizing the woodlands of the country. 

From the point of view of effective administration, 
I believe that the examination, development, and 
administration of the forest reserves should be placed 
in charge of the Bureau of Forestry of the Department 
of Agriculture, and that the topographic mapping of 
the reserves and the adjoining forest areas should 
remain in charge of the director of the Geological 
Survey, and be carried on in cooperation with the 
Bureau of Forestry. 



WORK OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE 

IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF 

THE RESERVES 

BY 

W. A. RICHARDS 

Commissioner of the General Land Office 

pUBLIC forest reserves under the control of the 
Government of the United States had their in- 
ception in section twenty-four of the Act of Congress, 
approved March 3, 1891, which provides: 

That the President of the United States may from 
time to time set apart and reserve, in any State or 
Territory having pubHc land bearing forests, in any 
part of the public lands wholly or in part covered with 
timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value 
or not, as public reservations, and the President shall, 
by public proclamation, declare the establishment of 
such reservations and the limits thereof. 

No provision for the administration of the reserves 
so created appears to have been a matter of legislation 
until June 4, 1897, when Congress prescribed the con- 
ditions under which such reserves should be estab- 
lished, to-wit: to improve and protect the forest to 
secure favorable conditions of water flows, and to fur- 
nish a continuous supply of timber for the use and 
necessities of citizens of the United States; and the 
Secretary of the Interior was authorized to make pro- 
vision for the protection against destruction by fire 
and depredations upon the public forests and forest 
reservations and to make such rules and regulations 
and establish such service as would insure the objects 



382 Procke^dings 01? the: 

of such reservations; that is, to regulate their occu- 
pancy and use and to preserve the forests thereon from 
destruction. The act also provides for the sale of so 
much of the dead, matured or large growth of trees 
found upon such reservations as may be compatible 
with the utilization of the forests thereon, and for the 
free use of such timber and stone on such reservations 
by bona fide settlers, miners, residents and prospectors 
for minerals, for firewood, fencing, building, mining, 
prospecting and other domestic purposes, as may be 
needed by such persons, but with a proviso that;suQt| 
timber should be used within the State or Territor/ 
where such reservations are locatecj. , Bona fide .set- 
tlers, residents and prospectors are protected by sai^ 
act in any rights they may have to any lands within 
such reservations, and provision , was made ; for the] 
relinquishment of any such clairns. . or lands in com--' 
plete ownership within such boundaries for any vacant 
public land opened to settlement, not exceeding , the 
area of: the tract exchanged. Inasrnuch as the. care, 
of these reserves was so closely connected with the; 
public land service, the Secretary of the Interior placed 
the immediate control thereof jii^d?^ i tlie^ Qj^^^nii^s J9ner 
of the General Land Office, .^rfi ryr o-tcxT/f:^ f>^i;-o-i-^ ,,, 
At the date of the passage of this act ihere werp in 
existence nineteen forest reservations which had been 
created under the provisions of the Act pf 189 1, one 
of which waa in Alaska, having an aggregate area of 
approximately 19,000,000 acres. In addition to these 
eleven other reservations had been, created, which werje 
suspended by Congress from the effects : of, the JP resi- 
dent's proclamations until March i,, 1,898, when ^aid 
lands . should become subject to the operation of said 
procljamations.. These reserves, had approximately an 
area of 20,000,000 acres, or a total in both classes o| 
about 39,000,000 acres. 



Ame;rican Forest Congrkss 383 

There are now in existence a total of sixty-one forest 
reservations with an aggregate area approximately of 
63,263,929 acres, located in fourteen States and Terri- 
tories, as follows: Two in Alaska, eight in Arizona, 
ten in California; six in Colorado, one in Idaho, one 
in Idaho and Washington ; one in Idaho and Montana, 
five in Montana, two in Nebraska, three in New 
Mexico, one in Oklahoma, four in Oregon, two in 
South Dakota, one in South Dakota and Wyoming, 
eight in Utah, three in Washington, two in Wyoming, 
and one in Wyoming and Montana. 

To provide for the care and maintenance of the 
forests on this vast area, and to provide such rules and 
regulations and the enforcement thereof as would 
best subserve that purpose, and at the same time to 
overcome to some extent at least, the prejudice ex- 
isting among the settlers and others to the withdrawal 
of such areas from the public domain, was the work 
that devolved upon the General Land Office. In fur- 
therance of this object rules and regulations govern- 
ing forest reserves were issued by the General Land 
Office June 30, 1897, and approved by the Secretary 
of the Interior, in which it was clearly shown that 
while such reservations were created for the purpose 
of protecting the timber thereon, and conserving the 
water supply, the right of the public to secure timber 
therefrom, to graze live stock thereon, or to make any 
legitimate use of the reservations would not be pro- 
hibited, but only regulated in such a manner as would 
provide not only for present but for the future. 

It then became necessary to provide for the enforce- 
ment of these rules and regulations, but owing to the 
limited appropriation at the disposal of the Depart- 
ment, very little progress was made during the first 
year in that respect. During the summer of 1897 six 



384 Proceejdings of the: 

special forest agents were appointed for the patrolling 
of the reserves, and they were assigned to duty in 
California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and New 
Mexico, it being the opinion of the Department that 
the reservations in those localities demanded more 
immediate attention than in other portions of the 
country. It is very apparent that such a limited force 
was not sufficient to obtain a great measure of success 
in the administration of the forest reserves, but on 
July I, 1898, a larger appropriation became available, 
and an attempt was made to organize the service on a 
somewhat permanent basis. The reservations then 
existing were grouped into eleven districts under as 
many superintendents, each of these having under 
his supervision and direction several forest supervis- 
ors, in immediate charge of the respective reserva- 
tions assigned them, each of whom had under his 
personal direction a number of forest rangers, whose 
duty it was to patrol the reserves, to prevent forest 
fires and trespasses from all sources, to see to the 
proper cutting and removal of the timber designated 
by the supervisors where sales of timber had been 
made. 

From the experience gained in the administration 
of the reserves various changes in the force of em- 
ployees have been made until the present division of 
responsibility has been established, which has proven 
to be the best for a careful administration of reserve 
interests coupled with prompt action in any emergency 
that may arise. Some of the superintendents were 
dispensed with and their duties assigned to inspectors. 
The reserve force in the field is now composed of three 
inspectors, five superintendents, fifty-two supervisors, 
seventeen first-class rangers, one hundred and twenty- 
four second-class rangers and three hundred and 



Ame:rican Forest Congress 385 

twenty third-class rangers. By executive order dated 
December 17, 1904, all of this force was placed under 
the Civil Service. 

Each reserve is placed in charge of a forest super- 
visor, and if necessary, an assistant supervisor, and a 
number of rangers. This group of men is held re- 
sponsible for the proper care of the particular reserve. 
The large reservations are divided into divisions, and 
to each division is assigned a forest guard. Each of 
these divisions is divided into as many patrol districts 
as are necessary, and to each patrol district is assigned 
a forest ranger. The dividing lines of the divisions 
and districts are generally mountains, canyons, rivers, 
or creeks. 

The size of the district depends upon the topography 
of the country, the difficulty of travel, the amount of 
business likely to be encountered, and the ability of the 
officer in charge. The forest guard is held responsi- 
ble for the satisfactory performance of the work and 
the condition of his division. He carries out the or- 
ders of his supervisor, assigns each ranger to his beat 
and headquarters and superintends and directs his 
work. He is required to keep watch over the work 
of each ranger in this division, and attend to any special 
work that may arise, such as timber sales, requests for 
free use of timber, and any matters demanding special 
investigations. He is required to visit his rangers as 
often as possible, to see that the affairs in his respec- 
tive districts are being conducted in accordance with 
the regulations. 

The assistant supervisor acts as field assistant to the 
supervisor in charge of the reserve. During patrol 
season he is required to look after the field force, 
notify them of all unusual affairs affecting the reserve, 
the transit of stock, new lumbering enterprises, prob- 



386 Prockkdings of the 

able influx of tourists or others, and to assist them 
in perfecting the system of signaUing, of communica- 
tion and of obtaining mail and supplies. To make his 
services effective the assistant supervisor should be 
thoroughly familiar with the woods. He must know 
every trail and every mountain pass. 

The forest supervisor, who has permanent head- 
quarters in a town near the reserve, having good mail 
and telegraph facilities, looks after all the office work 
and correspondence, and is also required to make occa- 
sional trips of inspection through the reserve. All 
instructions are issued by the General Land Office to 
the forest supervisor, who is responsible for the exe- 
cution thereof through his subordinate force. 

The forest inspectors are constantly inspecting the 
reserves, the field force and the general conditions 
thereof. The inspectors should be, and are men espe- 
cially qualified in forestry matters. They are men 
capable of assisting the officers in the field, instructing 
them in all matters pertaining to forestry in general, 
and the needs of the reserve in particular. 

All the field men located permanently on a reserve 
are required to furnish the necessary saddle and pack 
horses to be used in connection with their work, also 
camp outfits, which are necessary when the condition 
of the service requires long patrols. 

The object of the service has been primarily the 
protection of the forest reserve, and, secondly, the 
interests of the settlers and residents within the vicinity 
of the reserve. The idea of withdrawing such a large 
amount of land from the public domain, the fear of 
losing the opportunity to use timber and to graze their 
stock on the lands so withdrawn, caused a great deal 
of antagonism to the forest reserve plan. This, how- 
ever, was soon in a measure dispelled when it was 



Amkrican Forest Congress 387 

ascertained that under the regulations of the Depart- 
ment all these privileges were still to be used, the only 
conditions being that such privileges should be exer- 
cised in a systematic manner, under the direction of 
the forest officers and for the future betterment of the 
conditions then existing. 

' . The use of the forest reserves granted to the public 
is considered a privilege, not a right. It may be re- 
fused in any case, but as a rule settlers, farmers, pros- 
pectors and others who so desire may secure, free of 
charge, all kinds of timber for domestic . uses, such a§, 
fire- wood, poles and logs, and if really needed, niatureid 
green timber. Applicants are not allowed to cut tim- 
ber indiscriminately or wastefully, but can cut only 
such as the proper officer deems suitable for the pur- 
pose without injury to the reserve, and they are also 
required to utilize all the timber that can be used for 
any domestic purpose and to pile the brush resulting 
from the cutting in such a manner that it may be 
burned without injury to the surrounding forest. If 
firewood is desired,' applicants are required to utilize 
any tops and limbs which may have been left from 
former cuttings ; if building logs are desired, they must 
if possible utilize fire killed timber, or that which has 
bepome infected by insects or other destructive agents. 
If an applicant requires green timber, he is assigned 
to a locality where it has matured and is allowed to cut 
only the trees above a certain size which must be se- 
lected and marked by a forest reserve officer. A suffi- 
cient number of seed trees are always retained for the 
purpose of insuring a new growth. Corporations or 
person^ desiring to obtain timber from forest reserves 
for commercial use are required to purchase the same, 
and in every case they are required to utilize all, the 
timber^ either for lumber, firewood, or other purpose 



388 Proceedings o^ the 

and to pile the brush so that it can be burned without 
injury to the Hving timber. 

Grazing upon the reserves is also conducted under 
the superintendence of the General Land Office, under 
the direction of the Secretary of the Interior. When- 
ever it appears that grazing will not damage a forest 
reserve or prevent reforestation, it is allowed to such 
an extent as a careful investigation warrants, so as 
to prevent any injury by overgrazing. In practically 
all the reserves cattle grazing is allowed, but sheep 
grazing is prohibited in some localities where it is 
likely to injure the forest cover or the young growth. 

Each reserve is divided into grazing districts, and 
persons holding stock grazing permits are assigned to 
a certain district to which they must confine their stock. 
This arrangement secures an even distribution of stock 
on all parts of the reserve and puts an end to the strife 
that formerly existed as to the right of settlers and 
others to graze their stock on certain lands to the ex- 
clusion of others. Whenever it has been determined 
that stock may be grazed in any reserve, parties desir- 
ing the privilege are required to file applications for 
that privilege, which if approved by the forest officer, 
are transmitted to the General Land Office for its 
action. Preference is given in allowing such permits ; 
first, to stock of the reserve residents; second, stock 
of persons owning farms or ranches in the reserve, 
but not residing thereon ; third, stock belonging in the 
vicinity of the reserve known as neighboring stock, 
and, fourth, stock coming from a considerable distance 
from the reserve, and all persons holding permits 
pledge themselves to assist in protecting the reserve 
and in preventing and fighting fires. The number of 
cattle, horses, or sheep that may be allowed in any 
reserve is fixed by the Secretary of the Interior for 



American Fore:st Congress 389 

the following year at the end of each grazing season, 
and is determined by the report of the supervisor in 
connection with the effects of the former year's graz- 
ing. 

In addition to the privilege of securing timber from, 
and grazing upon forest reserves which may be called 
general privileges, the General Land Office is called 
upon to pass upon numerous applications for special 
privileges, such as rights of way for irrigating ditches, 
railways, roads, the establishment of hotels, the erec- 
tion of saw mills and the like within forest reserve 
boundaries. In all such applications the primary 
question to be determined is whether the exercise of 
such privilege will injure in any manner the forest or 
forest cover, or interfere with the proper administra- 
tion of the reserve. If this question is answered in 
the negative, then it is to be determined whether the 
privilege sought will be for the welfare of the public 
or beneficial to the exercise of some right which the 
applicant may have already acquired, either before or 
after the creation of the reserve, and if so, the privi- 
lege is usually granted. The investigation necessary 
to secure this information is obtained by the supervis- 
ors under the direction of the General Land Office, 
and upon their reports action is based. 

During the winter season when patrol duty is not 
necessary, a large number of the rangers are fur- 
loughed, leaving the supervisors and a few of the high 
grade rangers to care for the reserves, and to form 
a nucleus for the increase of the service during the 
following summer. These are employed in construct- 
ing trails so that the various portions of the reserve 
may be more easily reached, and fire breaks to aid in 
the control of forest fires. Twenty-one hundred and 
eighty-eight miles of trails and roads have been con- 



structed since the forest reserves came under the con- 
trol of this office, while there were 11,924 miles of 
roads and trails there at that time, many of which ^^re^ 
of sufficient width to form a fire break. 

All these matters are under the supervision of tjie 
General JLand Office, subject to the approval, of the 
Secretary of the Interior. This system is somewhat 
experimental in its nature and is subject to improve^ 
ment as the necessity arises. The appropriations have 
not been sufficient to carry on an effective adminis^ra-, 
tion, but the results so far achieved give promise thaj:, 
it is only a question of time when the service can b^, 
made self-supporting, to 'say nothing of the incalcula- 
ble benefit that will result to those who live near ^tW 
whose streams are fed by the \ya^ers therefrom; ;.„.. '1 

ni be)i3v/3n£ ^i noijasop airij il .5\ny<::j-i 3rit lo noii 

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A FEDERAL FOREST SERVICE 

BY 
GIFFORD PINCHOT 

Forester, U. S. Department of Agriculture 

Note. — Almost immediately upon the adjournment of the 
Forest Congress a bill to transfer the care of the forest re- 
serves to the Secretary of Agriculture became law. A na- 
tional forest service therefore came into actual existence in the 
Bureau of Forestry of that Department, the name of which 
Bureau, on the first of July, 1905, will be changed to the 
Forest Service. This paper has therefore been modified in 
accordance with the facts. It is now a statement of the 
objects and organization of the Forest Service. 

"X" HE National Forest Service has three principal 
objects. First, it is responsible for the general 
progress of forestry in the United States among the 
people at large, so far as the national government is 
concerned. This work rests upon the fact that in a 
government such as ours no movement can be perma- 
nently successful unless it is based on a general public 
recognition of its importance and utility. Since, 
therefore, it is essential to the well-being of the nation 
that its forests should not be destroyed, the first duty 
of the Forest Service is to place that fact clearly before 
the people. 

Second, the Forest Service, being almost, if not 
quite, the only organization at present capable of so 
doing, is charged with giving private owners the 
knowledge of how to perpetuate their forests by wise 
use. The area of private forest lands in the United 
States does now, and probably must always, greatly 



392 Procejedings of thk 

exceed that of the government forests. Consequently, 
the supply of timber for the future depends more 
upon the treatment given to private forests than upon 
the national forest reserves. For this reason it is of 
the utmost importance to give practical advice and 
assistance to private owners so that they may be able 
to introduce conservative lumbering upon their own 
lands. 

Third, the Forest Service is charged with the pro- 
tection and administration of the national forests. 
These forests at present cover an area of rather more 
than 63,000,000 acres, and are slowly increasing. They 
lie almost entirely upon high land at the headwaters 
of streams in the Western States and Territories, and 
are of vast importance to the irrigation and grazing 
interests, as well as to the users of wood. They are 
the key to the prosperity of the West. 

The administration of the forest reserves is based 
upon the general principle repeatedly stated by Presi- 
dent Roosevelt as the policy of his administration, that 
the reserves are for use. They must be useful first of 
all to the people of the neighborhood in which they 
lie. Nothing stands in the way of such use so effect- 
ively as the delays which are sometimes caused by 
official red-tape, and especially by referring local ques- 
tions for decision at Washington. Every question 
which can be left to the local forest officers will here- 
after be decided on the ground, and the office at 
Washington, as rapidly and completely as the new or- 
ganization will permit, will be relieved from the con- 
sideration of a multitude of details which have ham- 
pered it hitherto. 

Not only are the forest reserves in general for use, 
but every individual resource is likewise to be used, 
under the single restriction that it shall be .so used as to 



American Forest Congress 393 

become permanent. Timber, water, grass, minerals, 
are all to be open to the conservative and continued 
use of the people. They must be used, but they must 
not be destroyed. 

This policy of use cannot be carried out with success 
unless the personnel of the Forest Service is of a high 
standard. It is of the first importance that every 
forest officer should be honest, intelligent, well in- 
formed in forest matters, physically active, and full of 
the right kind of interest in his work. Such interest 
is impossible unless the work offers a man a permanent 
career. That is why promotions to the higher posi- 
tions in the Forest Service will invariably be made 
from the lower positions, when suitable men are avail- 
able. 

It is along these principal lines that the Forest Ser- 
vice will endeavor to make itself valuable to the nation. 
By deciding local questions promptly on local grounds, 
by opening all the resources of the reserves to rea- 
sonable use, and by the gradual creation of an effective 
staff of honest and interested public servants the Forest 
Service itself should become one of the really useful 
public agencies of the United States. 

Vastly important as the national forests are, we must 
recognize that the bulk of our forests are now, and 
must always remain, in the hands of private owners; 
that it is only as the private owner, large or small, be- 
comes interested in forestry and carries out its practical 
principles, that we shall succeed in introducing forestry 
into the United States. It should be remembered by 
every forester, and every man interested in forestry, 
that the woodlands in farms are about three times as 
great in extent as all the national forest reserves, and 
that the reserves are almost insignificant when com- 
pared with the vast area of timberland which is owned 



394 Proceedings of the 

by lumbermen in larger or smaller holdings, by rail- 
roads, or by men of various occupations who control 
the forests upon which the prosperity of this whole 
country depends. The forests of the private owners 
will have to be set in order if the overwhelming calam- 
ity of a timber famine is to be kept from this nation. 

The extension of the present forest area, by restock- 
ing cut-over lands and by making plantations where 
there are no forests, is one of the chief duties of the 
present moment. This will be accomplished by help- 
ing the States to formulate their own policies, by active 
cooperation in studying the local situation in each, and 
by recommending the best procedure under the condi- 
tions that are found to exist. In particular, the farm- 
ers in every section of the counrty must be aided, either 
to develop their woodlots or to plant trees upon the 
prairies. 

The forests now under government control should 
remain under government control so far as they are 
needed for public uses. We must have forest reserves, 
and we shall have to extend their area later on, not 
merely by presidential proclamation, but by purchase, 
both East and West. Forest lands are continually 
passing out of the government's ownership — lands 
whose preservation is absolutely essential to the well- 
being of the country where they lie. It will event- 
ually cost the government of the United States hun- 
dreds of millions of dollars to get back again the areas 
which it once held, which are now in private owner- 
ship, and which are absolutely essential to the welfare 
of all of us. 

I hope to see the Bureau of Forestry act as a helper 
and assistant, not only to the commercial interests, 
which is its first duty, but to all the interests of every 
kind that are in any way connected with the forest. 



American Forest Congress 395 

And this not by interference or dictation. I should 
Hke to have every man and every woman in this con- 
vention go home with the idea that the Bureau of 
Forestry is the servant of every one of you, and asks 
nothing better, and can hope for nothing better, than 
to be called upon to give you help to the utmost limit 
of its power. >DOHl iTOl .T X .Hi! 

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10 .'rH<'\r'Dh-^A ■ioiij;.: ■ '" ' '^ -di fhlw 99nK3; 

.rJiA Isni9inl 



PROGRESS IN FOREST RESERVATION 
IN PENNSYLVANIA 

BY 

Dr. J. T. ROTHROCK 

Secretary, Pennsylvania Reservation Commission 

nr HE first requirement of a State is citizens. Penn- 
sylvania, acting upon this fundamental principle 
early, adopted the expedient of selling land at the 
nominal price of 26 2-2, cents per acre. The State 
has long since outgrown the necessity of offering such 
inducements; but the law which authorized the same 
remains to this day unrepealed. In 1893 the Com- 
monwealth still owned a few of its many acres, but 
these could not be located by any State officer and 
were only discovered when the surveyors, surveying 
unseated lands, found here and there a tract for which 
no claimant appeared. 

Actual purchase of land by the States for the pur- 
pose of creating forest reservations commenced in 
1896. So apparent had the necessity of such action 
become that, though the average price paid per acre 
for the land without timber was greater than the 
Commonwealth received for the land with all of its 
wealth of timber upon it, no criticism was evoked. 

To-day Pennsylvania is in actual, or prospective, 
possession of about 700,000 acres, which has been pur- 
chased for the specific purpose of creating forest 
reservations, and thus to restore a normal propor- 
tionate area of wooded to cleared land. A Department 
of Forestry exists which ranks in recognized impor- 
tance with that of Public Instruction, Agriculture, or 
Internal Affairs. 



American Forest Congress 397 

This department has charge of land purchases under 
advice of the States Forest Reservation Commission, 
and of care of the land when purchased. It has since 
the commencement of the movement in Pennsylvania 
been our policy to move forward no more rapidly than 
public sentiment demanded, though an earnest effort 
was always made to create such sentiment, when it 
was lacking, but needed. It may be safely said that 
up to this time no legislature has ever denied what the 
forest officials of the State suggested, nor have we 
ever had a governor who failed most cordially and 
fully to support the forest movement since it took its 
present direction. 

We recognize that land must be cared for it if is 
purchased; though we have not as yet placed care- 
takers over any considerable part of the State's 
recently acquired possessions. The principal reason 
for this has been that we did not desire to involve 
expenditure of public funds until the people them- 
selves demanded it. This time seems to have arrived 
and the legislature will be asked this session to grant 
full, explicit authority for such action. 

Thus far almost no land has been purchased in the 
regions which drain in the Ohio. The reason for this 
is that a large part of this area contains valuable 
mineral deposits, and could not be purchased without 
allowing the owners to retain their rights to the min- 
erals. This difficulty did not exist in the districts 
which are drained by the Susquehanna, or the Dela- 
ware, because there the mineral belts were not of the 
kind we desired to secure for forest purposes at present. 
If, however, we had allowed retention of mineral 
rights by the present owners in the one district it 
would have been necessary to do so in the others. 
The Forestry Commission of Pennsylvania is now 



39^ Proceedings of the 

prepared to entertain propositions to purchase land in 
the regions which are tributary to the Ohio River. 

We here merely allude to the ever recurring vital 
question of forest fires, to say that while we still 
anticipate our share of trouble, nevertheless public 
sentiment in Pennsylvania never was so crystalized 
against those who create them as now. This, of 
course, means fewer fires and a prompter suppression 
of them than ever before. 

In the way of restoration of timber a good start has 
been made. We have opened an experimental plan- 
tation of white pine, and this year also made a good 
start in cultivation of black walnut. One nursery 
contains probably 300,000 seedlings which will be 
ready to set out in the coming spring. Our intention 
is to give the hardy catalpa a full, fair trial, though 
from what we have already seen of it in Pennsylvania 
our hopes are not as yet very high in regard to the 
tree. 

The railroad directors of the State are considering 
the propriety of entering upon the cultivation of our 
black locut for cross ties, and one of our leading 
railroad corporations has already growing and in good 
condition about 250,000 young locust trees. 

For the near future our State Forestry Commis- 
sion is contemplating planting considerable areas, old 
farms obtained along with more extensive purchases, 
in white pine. This tree formerly grew there, and is 
now growing in the land adjacent in most thriving 
and desirable condition, with tall, straight limbless 
trunks, which promises a harvest of the oldtime ''cork 
pine." 

Our chief difficulty in the way of scientific forestry 
work has been the want of trained wardens. If we 
had enough of these we could for the time being get 



American Forest Congress 399 

on with ordinary unskilled labor, where labor was 
required. The time will speedily come when we can 
pay liberal salaries to properly educated foresters, to 
produce and to work out a comprehensive plan for our 
operations. It is not here yet. To tide over the 
difficulty we have opened a forest academy in the 
South Mountain Reservation, and we have now twenty 
young men receiving elementary forestry instruction 
there. It is hoped to greatly extend the curriculum 
in the near future. One feature of our method of 
instruction is that our pupils divide their time about 
equally between manual labor in forestry and their 
studies. Thus far the combination has given fairly 
satisfactory results, and for the present we are in- 
clined to continue it. 

Pennsylvania has, we believe judiciously, started to 
utilize her forest reservations as sanatoria for cure 
of cases of incipient tuberculosis. Of course, the 
patients are not allowed to run at random over the 
ground and locate anywhere, but a place is set apart 
for them. The State has provided cottages and cabins 
and we now have, in the South Mountain, a colony 
of about thirty such invalids who are taking the fresh 
air cure. The results obtained have, in many in- 
stances, been remarkable. The probabilities are that 
this work will be greatly enlarged during the next 
few years. 

On the whole, the outlook for forestry in Pennsyl- 
vania is hopeful. Some of our laws may be improved, 
but we have no legal or constitutional restrictions upon 
us which interfere with development of conservative 
forestry ideas or plans. 



IMPROMPTU ADDRESSES 



Address by Hon. John Lacey 

Member of Congress from Iowa 

p OR the last fourteen years I have been a member 
of a Httle forest congress, originally composed 
of fifteen members and increased lately to seventeen, 
namely the Committee on Public Lands. The ques- 
tions that you are discussing and will discuss during 
this conference here we have been struggling with 
during all this time. The problem of growing trees 
must of necessity be solved, not only by the private 
owner, but also by the State and nation. Congress 
has recognized the necessity of setting apart large 
areas of forests for the purpose of preserving streams 
for irrigation and for the benefit, I think, as well, of 
the public health; because the forest is a source of 
public health. The fact has been recognized that the 
Government must take some steps and take these steps 
in time. The movement has been late, but it is not 
too late. This vast area of the public domain (larger 
than Iowa and Ohio combined) that has thus been set 
apart, and I believe, set apart for the American people 
and their children and their childrens' children forever, 
need no longer remain in the custody of that great 
department whose main business it is to dispose of the 
public land, to transfer it to the private individual for 
his home ; and, therefore, for several years I personally 
have championed a measure which would remove from 
this great committee one of its most pleasing duties, 
but yet would transfer it to a department better fitted — 
admirably fitted for the future care and preservation 
of this great domain. And it is not news to you, and 



404 Proceedings of the 

yet it is worthy of record here, that this measure has 
passed the House of Representatives and is now pend- 
ing in the Senate of the United States; and your 
judgment and influence v/ill go far, no doubt, to secure 
its passage through that wise and great though some- 
what slow moving body. We have at the head of the 
Department of Agriculture the great head of forestry. 
I, perhaps, do not mean the gentlemen that you are all 
thinking of. It is not my dear young friend, Mr. 
Pinchot, but the old man, who comes from the prairie 
State of Iowa, a State whose chief forests consisted 
of hazelbrush in the days when the Secretary of Agri- 
culture first settled in his magnificent domain. And I 
might say to you that so far as that State is concerned, 
it is quite too rich to use much of it for forestry. They 
can hardly afford it. With the land at one hundred 
dollars an acre to plant out in trees, the crop of which 
will be harvested seventy-five years from now, is almost 
too expensive even for a nation to undertake, so Iowa 
will never be a forest producing State. The head of 
this department will be succeeded some day — I hope a 
long time in the future — ^by some man of equally com- 
prehensive grasp and an equally prophetic view of the 
future. That department has come to stay, and it is 
a department that may look far into the future and 
do that for the nation and for the people which the 
private individual, or even the State, is not adequate 
to accomplish. And, therefore, it is well that when 
these reservations have finally been delimited and their 
outlines fixed, that they should be transferred, not to a 
department whose business it is to pass the title away 
to individuals, but to a department that will hold on 
to this land, that will turn it over to succeeding admin- 
istrations, and that will preserve the sources of the 
water supply of the country in the West, whose future 



• American Forest Congress 405 

is entirely dependent upon the successful operation of 
irrigation. And that is why, my friends, this transfer 
to a different department is a matter now of necessity 
when this vast domain of sixty-two or sixty-three 
millions of acres shall have been selected for that 
purpose. 

There is another reason for the transfer. I referred 
a moment ago to my young friend, Mr. Pinchot, who 
is the chief forester of the Department of Agriculture. 
It has been an anomaly in our legislation that the de- 
partment of the Government having charge of the 
forests had none of the skilled foresters of the United 
States in its employ, and that the department that did 
not own a tree anywhere was surrounded by the best 
corps of foresters in the world. The mountain could 
not come to Mahomet, and so Mahomet is going to the 
mountain. The department is to be transferred — the 
service transferred — to that department that is so nota- 
bly fitted and so organized as to take the permanent 
care of this magnificent, this wonderful domain. I 
w^as born in the woods of Virginia. I moved (thank 
God), to the prairies, and one of the most unpleasant 
things of my subsequent life was to return to the woods 
of Virginia, now West Virginia, to find that the old 
streams — the old "swimmin' holes" — as Whitcomb 
Riley calls them, the holes we used to swim in and 
where we caught so many fish, are now simply gravelly 
roads. They are highways as dry, as arid, as one of 
the deserts of Arizona or New Mexico — nothing but 
beds of gravel. And why is it? Because the trees 
have been cut down and the springs that were the chil- 
dren of the forest, have dried up, and instead of a 
slow running brook digging out holes here and there, 
clear as crystal and full of water, we have simply an 
increased torrent after each storm, carrying the pebbles 

N 



4o6 PROCEE^DINGS 01^ THE 

and the sand from the hills, washing them down and 
destroying the old brooks. 

Now this is one of the unpleasant features of the 
denuded timber lands of the Eastern States, I see 
here before me representatives from every State and 
Territory in the Union, because this question has be- 
come a national one and has gone into the homes of the 
people. It is not too late to save some of the great 
Appalachian forests of North and South Carolina. It 
is not too late to save the valleys of many the Eastern 
States from that destruction which followed the denu- 
dation of the forests of France when the hilltops were 
carried down into the valleys and the rich alluvial 
plains absolutely buried with sand and gravel. It is 
not yet too late, although many a fertile field has been 
destroyed. 

I can look at this from an impartial standpoint, with- 
out prejudice, living in a country that has no forests, 
that never had them, that never will have any great 
forests; where we have a climate in which there is 
always rain enough to grow a crop and drought enough 
to dry it for harvest; where all we need in the world 
is to be let alone. 

I did not come here to talk to you this morning. I 
sat down in the audience simply because I wanted to 
touch elbows with those who are carrying this crusade 
in favor of the forests into every part of the United 
States ; but I am glad to have this opportunity to look 
these earnest people in the face and to bid them God- 
speed and good cheer. There is no nation in the world 
that has been so extravagant, that has been such a 
spendthrift of its natural resources as the American 
nation. We tap a gas field, set it on fire and advertise 
for everybody to come and see it burn up — a gas field 
that it took countless millions of ages to store under the 



American Forest Congress 407 

cap of a rock that covers it — and yet in a few years it 
is destroyed, and the factories that were built over it 
with the understanding that an everlasting source of 
supply existed underneath, find themselves once more 
shipping coal from hundreds of miles away in order to 
supply their furnaces. The same is true with oil; the 
same with the beasts of the forests and the birds of the 
air. People destroy them with a wantonness that al- 
most looks like malignity; and all these natural re- 
sources of the great United States of America are 
involved, either directly or indirectly in the questions 
that you are going to discuss. While preserving the 
forests you will preserve the animals that roam therein ; 
while preserving the forests will give shelter to the 
birds of the air that make their nests therein. It is 
too late to save the wild pigeon, perhaps. The count- 
less millions that used to break down the woods by 
their weight have disappeared, and the advent of a 
dozen wild pigeons in the State of New York is taken 
up by the Associated Press and published far and wide 
as a wonderful thing: "A dozen wild pigoens were 
seen in western New York day before yesterday." 
And yet, within the lifetime of my young friend Pin- 
chot, and I refer to him because I look to him for the 
future of the forests, in the lifetime of even the young- 
est members present here, this magnificent bird has 
practically disappeared from the face of the earth. I 
know my friend, the Secretary of Agriculture, will not 
fully agree with me upon the importance of the preser- 
vation of the buffalo ; but I expect some day to get him 
to entirely agree with me. 

This is a day of progress. It is not very long ago 
that men rejoiced at the destruction of the buffalo, 
because it opened the way for the white man in the 
West. We took up the subject in Congress some years 



4o8 Proceedings oe the 

ago, while a few remains of this magnificent animal 
were still upon the earth. It was my good luck to 
secure a small appropriation from our economical 
chairman of the Committee on Appropriations — not a 
very sentimental man, but one of the most practical 
men on earth — Uncle Joe Cannon — a small appropria- 
tion of $15,000 to restore a herd of bison to the Yellow- 
stone Park. Four hundred of these creatures were 
enclosed in the area that was reserved when this land 
was set apart as a pleasure ground for the nation. 
Those four hundred have gradually been killed for 
their heads and for their pelts, and the calves have 
been destroyed by the mountain lions and by the sever- 
ity of the winters, until finally only twenty-three were 
the sorry remains of that splendid herd that was set 
apart for the nation in the Yellowstone ; and the small 
appropriation of $15,000 was made. Eighteen animals 
were purchased, part of them from the Flathead herd. 
The Flathead Indians, with more prudence than their 
white brethren had shown, saved thirty-five calves a 
good many years ago, out of the dying herd, and made 
them their private property. And that little herd of 
thirty-five increased until there were nearly three hun- 
dred of them. And this herd now in the Yellowstone 
was selected mainly from the Flathead herd because 
they were reared in an altitude something like that in 
which the new herd was to live. To this herd were 
added animals from Texas — from the Goodnight 
herd — and from Corbin's New Hampshire herd — so 
as to mingle the blood normally in this new herd as 
the blood of the nations has been mingled in the United 
States of America. This is the way to produce a race, 
to mix them and get the best you can from everywhere. 
And so, starting upon the proposition of building once 
more a herd in the Yellowstone, that little herd from 



American Forest Congress 409 

eighteen has grown to thirty-nine, and we have hopes 
of sixteen more in the spring. 

Now I only speak about this, my friends, because it 
is a kindred question. It is one of the things that 
grows out of the agitation of forestry. A man or a 
woman who preserves a tree in a practical way will 
preserve the things that that tree shelters and produces 
and that are useful to man. Again, I wish to bid you 
Godspeed, and I hope you will carry with you to every 
part of the United States the enthusiasm which you will 
generate here — the enthusiasm which you bring here 
and which you will convey to one another — and that 
you will be a mighty band of missionaries all the way 
from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon. 



Address by Hon. W. A. Reeder 

Member of Congress from Kansas 

I REGARD it as a privilege to be permitted to speak 
to so intelligent an audience from all sections of 
this great country of ours, interested in so vital a work 
as the preservation of our forests. I had the good 
fortune to be born in one of the best valleys of Penn- 
sylvania, the Cumberland Valley, but I had the better 
fortune to be removed, very early in my history, to 
the Solomon Valley, in the semi-arid regions of western 
Kansas, and for considerably over a third of a century 
I have lived in that section, and it has probably changed 
my characteristics considerably from what they would 
have been had I remained in the land of my nativity ; 
also my interest in certain matters, particularly the 
matters of irrigation and the preservation of our 
forests. 

What a dense population we will be able to find 



4IO PROCEi:DINGS O^ THE 

homes for in the vast arid and semi-arid regions of 
the West when we put water upon those semi-arid and 
arid lands! Incidentally, I wish to remark that the 
district I represent has more tillable acres than all of 
Japan, and while we have 200,000 population or less, 
Japan is supporting 43,000,000 of people. With irri- 
gation we can accommodate as dense a population as 
is supported on any equal sized territory in any part 
of the world. Mine is one of the seven congressional 
districts of Kansas, and Kansas but a small portion of 
the territory that can and will be irrigated by means 
of the irrigation law. The subject I desire to present 
is this: You are interested in matters that are vitally 
important to irrigation. Important because of the 
conservation of water by the forests at the head of 
streams which supply water for irrigation. The tim- 
ber should be preserved in order to conserve this water. 
You are also interested in another subject which has 
been spoken of by several, which if handled rightly, 
will add largely to the funds of the great irrigation 
movement. This is the sale of the timber on the public 
domain for something near its value. We are some- 
thing of an impetous people in Kansas, and have seen 
times when we had to be somewhat practical. I am 
glad to add, however, that we are very prosperous at 
present. We Kansans who are interested in irrigation 
feel that the matter of changing our laws in regard to 
the sale of timber at something near its value, should 
be consummated, and that soon. We Kansans are 
urgent in the matter and would go direct to the source 
of the difficulty delaying such action. It should have 
been arranged at the last session of Congress, or even 
before that, in my opinion. 

The great irrigation convention held at El Paso, 
Texas, in November, 1904, composed of men from 



American Forest Congress 411 

all parts of the nation, adopted resolutions asking that 
our present land laws be repealed and a system of laws 
substituted providing for the sale of the stumpage of 
our timber, and now, this great convention of repre- 
sentative men and women express themselves so ear- 
nestly in the same manner, that I ask myself why is 
it so small a number of people, the speculators in our 
timber land, can control in these matters against the 
great mass of our influential citizens? I fear you are 
not practical enough. Your are not fighting at the right 
place. The Congress of the United States has control 
in these matters. The men who appeared before the 
Committee on Public Lands last year, and argued in 
favor of retaining the land laws as they are, are not 
holding meetings; are not passing resolutions; are 
showing no particular enthusiasm ; but they are doing 
the business. I say this with the utmost respect and 
regard for the chairman of the Public Lands Com- 
mittee, Congressman Lacey, who is on the platform. 
In my judgment, our timber law should have been 
changed long ere this. I wish every member of this 
organization would read the hearings before the Public 
Lands Committee of the House last year. I wish you 
could, in some way, induce this Public Lands Commit- 
tee of the H]ouse, who are solely responsible, to permit 
the question of the repeal of these very harmful laws 
to come before the House for consideration. This is 
the only practical method of reaching this important 
question. I further wish to assure you that resolutions 
will not accomplish this result. A bill for the repeal 
of the Timber and Stone Act has passed the Senate, 
and the Committee on Public Lands of the House have 
already decided the House shall not be permitted to 
consider it for one year more at least. All your in- 
fluence should be used with the members of this com- 



412 Proceedings oi^ the 

mittee, in order that the matter may be considered by 
the House. I am satisfied that Congress is wilHng to 
repeal this Timber and Stone Act and put in its place 
laws for the sale of the stumpage, if they are permitted 
the privilege of considering the question. 

I thank you for this privilege, as I was anxious to 
put this matter before you, and urge you to commence 
an effort by seeing members of the Committee on 
Public Lands of the House, or indirectly using your 
influence with them. This committee has absolute 
control in this matter. If they can be induced to per- 
mit the matter to come before the House, you should 
then urge your member of Congress to work and vote 
in line with your wishes in the matter. 



Address by Rev. Edward Everett Hale 

Chaplain of the United States Senate 

f SHOULD be glad to be called upon at any time, 
day or night, for twelve hours or twelve minutes, 
to speak upon this subject, anywhere or to anybody 
who had any interest in it. I represent here the State 
of Massachusetts, as well as the State of New Hamp- 
shire; I represent also the Appalachian Association, 
which is a large organization and has done a great 
deal of good. But I am not going to speak as a New 
England man ; I am going to speak as an American. 

I have slept under pine trees, which were high, tall, 
beautiful pine trees when North America was dis- 
covered. I went up through the same region two years 
ago with a friend and found my pine trees all gone and 
sumac and blackberry bushes in their places. It makes 
a man cry to see it. I have talked with lumbermen 
who knew where they could find pine trees that had 



Ame:rican Forest Congress 413 

King George's mark on them, because King George, 
in 1770, valued his New England forests so much that 
he would not let anybody cut down pine trees 
without his permission, and he placed on the trees the 
broad arrow of the English Admiral. Fortunately, he 
was not able to cut down the trees afterwards. Now 
we are before Congress because we want Congress to 
preserve the forests for fifty square miles in that region. 
I desire that my boy's boy's boy's boy's girls, two cen- 
turies hence shall see such pine trees as I saw in 1841. 
And for like reasons, we want an Appalachian reser- 
vation made in the highlands of Tennessee and the 
Carolinas. 



Address by Mr. W. S. Harvey 

Vice-President, Pennsylvania Forestry Association 

J T is exceedingly gratifying to me, as an officer of 
the Pennsylvania Forestry Association, which asso- 
ciation, you are all aware, has been one of the pioneers 
in the work for forestry, and probably has done more 
than any other association, and has a larger member- 
ship than any other association, except the American 
Forestry Association, of which I also have the honor 
to be a member of, and of the Board of Directors. 

The highest tribute that has ever yet been paid to 
the forestry work of the United States is being paid 
to-day by this notable gathering of influential people, 
not only from every section of our own country, but 
from our kindred country, Canada. We have listened 
with great interest, and I sincerely trust it will be with 
great profit, to the words that my countryman, Dr. 
White, has just uttered, in telling us how intelligently 
Canada is administering her forests, and this Congress 



414 Proce:edings o^ the 

will fail of the responsibility that rests upon it to do 
practical work, if we do not, before we disband, take 
action of a nature that will enlist the influence of every 
one here and the organizations they represent. Rail- 
roads, timber owners, and lumber manufacturers, those 
interested in irrigation, those interested in mining, 
those interested in industries collateral to the forestry 
question, we should enlist their cooperation and service 
to have laws enacted in the United States that will at 
least put the United States on an equal footing with 
our neighbor, Canada. I sincerely trust that we will 
not adjourn without having some resolutions passed 
that will invite the cooperation of all the bodies here 
represented, to have the Timber and Stone Act 
repealed. The Timber and Stone Act, as we have 
learned in the Secretary's report, allows the United 
States Government to sell land in fee for $2.50 an 
acre, while the reservations of the Chippewa Indians, 
which were sold at public auction in December of 1903, 
realized for the timber alone, the land itself being 
reserved, $15.06 an acre, or more than $2,600,000, as 
against $438,000 that the Government would have 
received at $2.50 an acre. Why should the United 
States Government sell what it owns for less than its 
real, its market value ? There is no reason in the world 
why this should be done, and if I am not out of order, 
Mr. Chairman, I think it would be appropriate that I, 
or some one else, should make a motion that the 
recommendations that are in the Secretary's report 
shall be referred to the Committee on Resolutions; 
that the Secretary be requested to tabulate those recom- 
mendations so that he can present them to the Com- 
mittee on Resolutions, so they can consider them and 
bring them before this Congress to be acted upon 
before we separate. 



American Forest Congress 415 

The purpose of our coming together, with the im- 
portant interests represented and identified with this 
Congress, is to produce practical results. Our distin- 
guished President said, in the address which he read 
to us this morning, that the "period of talking is past 
and the period of doing has come." I think all of us 
can rejoice in the fact that there has never been a 
period in the history of the United States that was such 
a period of doing. We have to-day an administration 
that does things. American citizenship has been ex- 
alted in the eyes of the entire world through the 
methods of doing those things. Mr. Chairman, it is an 
administration where personnel counts for much, and 
we are greatly honored in the work that many of us 
have been so deeply interested in for many years, in 
having you at the head of this great economic work. 
At first we were ridiculed for being theorists and 
idealists, and we were told that there was nothing 
practical in our ends and aims. We are thankful to- 
day that that spirit has disappeared. We are also 
highly honored in having the President of the United 
States the honorary president of this Congress, who 
will also deliver one of the most important addresses, 
which address is to embrace in its scope, forestry in 
its relation to the United States. Probably all of you 
are aware that perhaps we to-day would be aborigines 
if it were not indirectly for forestry. 

You all know the man who discovered America 
more than four hundred years ago. Columbus had 
great trouble with his crew, they mutinied and had 
decided that they would allow him no longer to pursue 
his course to find land that they never believed would 
be found, and they determined that they would compel 
him to return to their native land, and just at that 
juncture one of those men, looking overboard into the 



4i6 Proce:edings 0^ THE 

sea, saw the fresh limb of a tree floating in the ocean, 
and they then thought land must be near, and they 
determined they would pursue their course, and 
America was discovered as a result of that incident. 

The president of this Association, our distinguished 
Secretary of Agriculture, who is the most modest man 
that was ever sent to Washington from Iowa, is a 
man who also "does things," and the greatest guaranty 
and the best earnest that we can have of the future of 
the forestry work, is that Secretary Wilson is at the 
head of it. The department of which Secretary Wilson 
is the head, we must not overlook the fact, is the one 
department of the Government that produces things. 
Every other department of this Government is a matter 
of expenditure; Army, Navy, Interior, Post Office, 
Commerce and Labor, and the Treasury Department. 
All of these .departments are departments that require 
enormous expenditures. The Department of Agricul- 
ture is the department that has done more than any 
other department in the United States to increase the 
wealth of the United States. Friends in Wall Street 
say "Secretary Wilson is the greatest bull factor on 
the whole financial horizon." 

He has recently made a statement that the value of 
the products of the soil in the United States the past 
year is four billion, nine hundred million dollars — 
four hundred millions dollars greater than they were 
one year ago, and they say a shrinkage in securities 
in Wall Street, from one to two billions of dollars, does 
not amount to anything serious when the actual wealth 
of the country is increased four billion, nine hundred 
million dollars. 

Secretary Wilson is going to hold himself responsi- 
ble for the future of the Vv^ork of this Association ; also 
his associate, Mr. Pinchot. We all delight to give 



American F'orest Congress 417 

honor and credit to this gifted young man, and every 
one of us is sorry that we are not as young as Mr. 
Pinchot, to go with him into the great future of this 
work. It is going to have a great future, and I am 
glad to say as a representative of the Pennsylvania 
Association, that Pennsylvania is ready to go hand in 
hand and cooperate with you in every good measure 
of legislation, national or state, that may be desirable, 
and one of the important purposes here should be to 
find a base of unity and harmony of action on all 
national questions. If we can interest earnestly and 
sincerely the interests that are represented here to-day, 
and representing the many states that they do, I under- 
take to predict, and I say it without any qualification, 
that I believe there is no legislation that we will not 
be able to secure, because the people who represent the 
forestry movement to-day will not ask anything that will 
not be desirable or beneficient or wise and good for the 
interest and welfare of the country. 

As a member of this Congress from the State 
of Pennsylvania, that is indirectly interested in 
the Appalachian Forest Reserve, I want to raise 
my voice here in advocacy of using our influence with 
the Congress of the United States to make it possible 
that we have a forest reservation in the Eastern States. 
We have learned in the figures. that have been given 
us that the United States owns 63,000,000 of acres of 
reservations, every one of which is in the West. The 
Appalachian Reservation, the purchase of which has 
been endorsed and advised by commercial bodies 
throughout New England and the East, by various 
forest associations and by the National Board of Trade 
for several years, at their meetings in January, in 
Washington, embraces 3,840,000 acres of land, cover- 
ing an area two hundred miles long and twenty to forty 



4i8 Proceedings of the 

miles wide — an average of about thirty miles. The 
importance of securing it by the National Government 
is of great vital interest to this Congress. This Con- 
gress is to consider economic questions from a practical 
point of view. The Southern States have more than 
$200,000,000 invested now in cotton mills. These cot- 
ton mills are in a large measure dependent upon water 
power. The taking of the forest cover from the 
Appalachian Mountains will largely destroy the oppor- 
tunity nature has given the South to grow and increase 
in wealth and prosperity, which it is doing and which 
in the future it will to a greater degree than any other 
section of our country. Some of you may not be aware 
of the fact that the head waters of all of the rivers 
that I shall name are in this Appalachian range : The 
Potomac, the James, the Shenandoah, the Roanoke, 
the Dan, the Catawba, the Yadkin, the Broad, the 
Santee and the Savannah on the east. On the west we 
have the Cumberland, the French Broad, the New, the 
Tennessee, the Kanawha, and the Ohio. The names 
of these rivers should impress us with the significance 
and the importance of providing a forest reservation 
in the Appalachian territory in the Middle East. Res- 
olutions were passed by the American Cotton Manu- 
facturers' Association in convention in the city of 
Washington on the 12th day of May, 1904, as follows: 
"Whereas, we recognize a great source of danger to 
our water powers in the indiscriminate cutting of 
timber at the headwaters of our streams ; and whereas, 
this opinion is confirmed by uniform experience in 
other countries, where drastic remedies have been 
successfully applied; and whereas, our future as a 
manufacturing nation is largely dependent upon cheap 
power secured from our rivers and streams ; and 
whereas, owing to the great improvements being made 



American Forest Congress 419 

in electrical transportation our water powers should 
be greater factors for furnishing power in the future 
than they have in the past; and whereas, the sources 
of the streams where the injury is done are often in 
other States than those in which power is used, hence 
this vital question becomes one which the National 
Government alone can properly deal with." 

There is another important point, and that is the fact 
that the southern Appalachian Mountains embrace the 
last remnant of the hardwood forests of the eastern 
United States. Owing to there being no swamps or 
lakes in this entire region, almost the entire rainfall 
will be lost at once if the forest cover is removed. Upon 
the continuance of this forest cover depends almost en- 
tirely the water power, navigation and agriculture of 
the regions south of the Ohio and Potomac Rivers and 
east of the Mississippi. This proposed forest reserve 
extends through several State, and it is not practicable 
to depend upon State action. I, therefore, Mr. Chair- 
man, in view of these important facts that should 
impress us with great earnestness and determination to 
take action at this time, recommend that this question 
be referred to the Committee on Resolutions, and I 
sincerely trust that the Committee on Resolutions will 
take definite action and bring before this Congress a 
resolution for their adoption. 



Address by Mr. Aubrey White 

Commissioner of Crown Lands, Ontario, Canada 

I ASSURE you I am taken completely by surprise in 

being asked to address you at the present moment. 

I had naturally expected that at some time during this 

Congress I might be asked to say something in connec- 



420 Proceedings oe the 

tion with forest reserves and our management of them 
in the Province of Ontario, but I was not prepared to 
speak at any length at the present moment. I cannot, 
however, refuse to say a few words in connection with 
the forest reserves of Ontario and their management. 
At the outset I wish to say that I am a great lover of 
the forest. In my early days in Canada it was my 
good fortune, first, to trade with the Indians in the 
remote part of the province, afterwards, to be engaged 
in the lumber business, first in the subordinate position 
of cutting roads and gradually working up, until at the 
present time I am in charge, as the permanent official 
of all the timber and Crown Lands of the great Prov- 
ince of Ontario. In my peregrinations through the 
back country by canoe, particularly after coming over 
a long, tiresome portage, it was often a source of great 
delight to me on putting my canoe down off my head 
to see a little lake surrounded by the beautiful green 
forest, figurately, like a diamond set in emeralds. There 
can be nothing more gratifying to the eye of man than 
such a sight, particularly under such circumstances. 
And then, as the eloquent gentleman who has just ad- 
dressed you a moment ago, said with respect to his 
experience in his own State of Virginia, I have gone 
back later to some of these little lakes and seen them 
spoiled, the timber having been burned up and the 
locality denuded of all its beauty and become an eye- 
sore in the landscape. Therefore, as a lover of the 
beautiful, as one who is fond of nature, I am anxious 
to do everything in my power to educate the people 
upon the subject of forestry, and the conservation of 
our forests, as well from the standpoint of the beautiful 
as from a commercial standpoint. 

We in Canada have an altogether different system in 
managing our forests from what you have in this 



American Forest Congress 421 

country. I sometimes think it is better to adhere to 
an old system, improving it from time to time as expe- 
rience may dictate, than it is to evolve a new system. 
The genesis of our system of forest management is to 
be found back in the days of the French regime in 
Canada. At that time, when the Crown was parting 
with the soil, it reserved to the King of France all the 
timber on the land that was suitable for naval purposes. 
The oak was the principal timber used for naval pur- 
poses, and it was the timber reserved. Permits had to 
be obtained to get into the forests and cut it. When 
the country came into the possession of the British, 
the same system was still pursued, but by this time 
pine had become the valuable naval timber, and it was 
reserved, and so it has been ever since. In all the titles 
we give to settlers and others, we reserve the pine 
timber until the patent has issued. So far as the 
Province of Ontario is concerned, our principal revenue 
is derived from the sale of pine timber. We have no 
State tax as you have in the different States of the 
Union. The people of Ontario are not taxed one 
five-cent piece for State purposes, if I may put it in 
that way. Our principal revenue comes from two 
sources, first, the per capita grant made by the Federal 
Government to the Province, and the other, the pro- 
ceeds of the sale of our timber and lands. This last 
year, 1904, our revenue from timber alone was some 
$2,800,000. When we determine to dispose of any 
quantity of timber, we survey it in what we call 
"berths," that is, blocks of land having an area of 
from two to fifty miles, as the case may be. Then we 
advertise the sale very widely, notifying the people to 
come and bid for these blocks. Before the day of 
sale we have them carefully inspected, the timber upon 
them estimated, and we put a value upon each block, 



422 Proceedings of the 

which is called the "upset price." Then we put them 
up for sale by the mile at a price which we call the 
''bonus value," that is, the amount of money paid for 
the privilege of obtaining a license to cut the timber, 
subject to a royalty when it is cut. The present roy- 
alty, exclusive of the bonus paid at the sale, runs from 
$i.oo to $2.00 a thousand. The bonus derived from 
a sale is sometimes enormous. At the last sale we held 
in 1903, we received $30,500 a mile for the right to 
cut timber on a certain berth, with a royalty of $2.00 
per thousand feet, board measure, to be paid as the 
timber was cut and removed. We have a very valu- 
able asset in our pine timber and we are taking care 
of it, we are not giving it away. Now, you have had 
in this country, as we have, the problem of preventing 
the destruction of the forests by fire. When I entered 
the service of the Ontario Government, one of the first 
questions addressed to me by my chief was, "Can you 
not recommend something by which we can prevent 
the forests being destroyed by fire ?" I said I thought 
I could, and I evolved the plan which has been copied 
in all the provinces and by the Federal Government, 
and is, I think, if I may say so without egotism, now 
followed to some extent, at any rate, in the United 
States. I said we should try to guard the forests 
during what may be called the dangerous period ; that 
is, from the month of May to the beginning of October. 
We have some 20,000 miles in the Province of Ontario 
under timber license, and my suggestion was that the 
owners of these licenses should be asked to recommend 
or select men who were cool-headed and knew their 
limits, as such men could best protect them, that these 
men should be put on duty as fire rangers or fire police 
during the dangerous period, the Government bearing 
one-half of the expense and the timber licensees the 



American Forest Congress 423 

other. I suggested that the Hcensees should be asked 
to name the rangers because I wanted to get capable 
men and to divorce the service from any connection 
with politics. If the Government had appointed all the 
rangers I fear we would have had the insinuation that 
some of them were appointed for political purposes. 
In order to get rid of that idea once and forever, we 
said we would allow the licensees, who were of all 
schools of political thought, to select the men, then 
we will appoint them and pay half their wages. That 
system has been approved and expanded and is in 
force at the present time. During the last year, in 
the Province of Ontario, we have not had a single forest 
fire, although thousands of people are moving about 
through the forests during the summer season. Large 
numbers of your own countrymen come up to our 
country during the summer, regarding it as a play- 
ground because we have the forest there in which they 
can come in contact with nature and enjoy themselves. 
Recently we have thought we ought to go a step fur- 
ther; that we ought to set apart large tracts of land 
as forest reserves, the timber of which should be cut 
subject to regulations as to the size of the timber and 
measurements and everything of that sort, and that the 
trees to be cut should be marked by rangers appointed 
by the Government, the timber to be disposed of in 
the open market from time to time as might be thought 
proper. We have set apart in the Province of Ontario 
some 7,000,000 acres of forest reserves, and we have 
on these 7,000,000 acres probably some 10,000,000,000 
feet of white pine timber, and in this white pine we 
think we have one of the most valuable assets that any 
province or State could have, because there is no 
property that is more rapidly increasing in value than 
white pine stumpage. We are using our best efforts 



424 Proce:e;dings of thk 

to take care of it, to protect it, and I think I may say 
that so far as the prevention of the destruction of the 
forest by fire is concerned, we have almost, if not com- 
pletely, solved the problem. 

I am delighted to have had the opportunity of saying 
a few words to this great Congress upon the manage- 
ment of our forest reserves. Necessarily I have been 
somewhat disjointed in my remarks, being called upon 
on the spur of the moment without any preparation to 
address the meeting. Before I sit down I want to 
congratulate you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to con- 
gratulate everybody present upon the amount of good 
that can be done by such a meeting as this. If every- 
one here is determined to do everything in their power 
to educate the people upon the subject of the protection 
of the forest and its conservation for national purposes, 
I think we shall have a better public opinion upon the 
matter. 



Address by Dr. B. E. Fernow 

Author of " Economics of Forestry " 

J T was said this morning that the time for talking is 
past and time for action is present, and so I sup- 
posed that talking was no longer in order and had not 
even thought of what I might say to you should I be 
called upon. I might, however, be reminiscent of 
an occasion similar to the present one, when the first 
Forestry Congress was called, to Cincinnati, in 1882, 
when the first attempt was made in the United States 
to arouse public attention to the necessity of the subject 
which now occupies this large assembly. Do not 
believe for a moment that those were all sentimentalists 
that came together at that early stage of development. 



Amkrican Forest Congress 425 

There were economists present with sentiment, to be 
sure, but not moved by sentimentality. Later a large 
amount of sentimentality was introduced into the 
subject, thanks to the ladies, and this, too, was a good 
thing at the time, because in that way interest was 
gradually spread among all classes of the public, even 
to the practical men of the woods. I feel greatly 
gratified that all the talk that we of the earlier ages 
performed, has made it possible to bring together such 
an assembly as the present one, with practical men, the 
lumbermen themselves, in the audience and on the 
platform. It has taken a large amount of talk to make 
that possible, but still more so, as was stated by the 
secretary of the Association this morning, the natural 
development of economic laws has brought around a 
good many who doubted the necessity and propriety 
of our earlier work. 

As far as the Federal Government's interests are 
concerned, I dare say they are now well understood 
and cared for, and some of the States are initiating 
the Federal Government and have been awakened to 
their duty. They have begun to perform it, and as 
time goes on, will perform it better and better. As far 
as private interests are concerned, I want to accentuate 
the fact which Dr. Schenck tried to bring out this morn- 
ing, namely, that the lumberman is a necessary agent 
in our civilization and that the lumberman, while he 
serves himself, serves civilization, although I dare say 
that not one of the lumbermen here has gone into 
business for the purpose of helping civilization along, 
but for the purpose of helping his own pocket. The 
private interests, then, leaving out the interest of the 
nation at large, lies in the profit that might be expected 
from a change in the use of forest properties. It would 
be difficult for anyone to prove that such a change at 



426 Proce:edings of the 

the present time, adopting forestry methods, would 
lead to on immediate increase of profits. Forestry is 
profitable only in the long run, in the future. To 
discuss its profitableness you must be able to predict 
what the needs of the future in the use of wood will 
be, and what the prices are likely to be. 

Now I have, within the past few weeks, occupied 
myself with this most important question : Will wood 
prices rise, and will it pay at the present time to spend 
money in the care of forest properties, or to leave 
money in the forest properties, not taking all that can 
be taken at the present time with a view to an increased 
revenue in the future? This is somewhat of a tech- 
nical subject, but I believe you will have to deal here 
with technical subjects in formulating a policy which 
appeals to the interest of private forest owners. Con- 
trary to the statement of some statisticians of name and 
fame, wood prices have been, even in the United States, 
rising continuously for the last seventy years at the 
rate of about one and one-half per cent; and at the 
present time, if you take shorter periods of ten, fifteen 
or twenty years, you will find that this rate of increase 
has been very much greater. In the last forty years 
the industrial nations of the world, such as England, 
France and Germany, as well as the United States, 
have increased the wood consumption to a marvelous 
extent, not according to the number of their population, 
but an increase per capita consumption. This is a 
remarkable fact when we consider that stone, iron and 
steel have taken the place of wood in building materials 
to a large extent, and coal has replaced it as fuel. So 
it is impressed upon us that our civilization is con- 
tinuously dependent upon wood. Hence a supply for 
the future is one of the requisites of our modern civili- 
zation. The consideration of the rapid increase in the 



American Forest Congress 427 

consumption, which means, of course, a rapid decrease 
in the natural supply, and hence an increase in price, is 
the first basis upon which to discuss the question of 
private interests in forest properties. We can now 
prove that forestry will be profitable, for the history 
of the past gives us a clue to the history of the future. 

But we may discuss this question and we may discuss 
the methods of forestry ad infinitum, yet we will never 
succeed in persuading the private owner until we have 
produced the conditions which make it possible to hold 
forest property uninjured for the long time which is 
necessary in order to reap the benefit. Of course, you 
will see at once that I am coming to the iire question. 
I have come down to this last issue as the one which 
must be solved first before the others can be ap- 
proached. One incident will suffice to illustrate what 
I mean. A lumber company in New Hampshire was 
induced to do what is called "conservative lumbering" ; 
that is to say, not robbing the forest of all salable 
timber, but to leave some for future taking. They saw 
that was a good policy and treated one hundred thou- 
sand acres in that fashion; leaving the smaller sizes 
below a certain diameter. A fire came and swept over 
the ground and destroyed everything that had been 
left, and now there is one friend of forestry less. 

I am glad to say that there are not any more of the 
mere economists and the sentimentalists interested in 
this question, but the lumbermen themselves. With 
their pocket-books interested, they will find the methods 
of protecting their forest property and they will insist 
that the function of the State, which first of all is to 
protect property, should be properly employed. 

I do not know that I have been able to say anything 
that is new. All these things have been threshed out 
for the last twenty-four years at least, when the first 



428 Proceedings o^ the 

Forestry Congress met, and perhaps before that time. 
There is nothing unknown, so far as I am aware, that 
would lead us to comprehend conditions better, and it 
is only necessary for us to put into practice what we 
know, TO DO, as was suggested this morning. 



Address by Mrs. L. P. Williams 

Chairman Forestry Committee, General Federation of Women's Clubs 

I HAVE not my resolution in my pocket, nor have I 
any greetings prepared, and am somewhat sur- 
prised to be called upon at this time; however, I will 
take the opportunity to say that it gives me much 
pleasure to sit in this meeting and see these many 
allied interests and forces drawing together, since 
cooperation means progress. 

I am glad also to say that you recognize and permit 
women to have a share in your deliberations and be 
helpful in the work. Women have ever been recog- 
nized as conservators of the interests of the home, 
then why should they not assist in this particular work 
that contributes to the building of prosperous homes, 
which are the foundation upon which national pros- 
perity is built? 

The General Federation of Women s Clubs held its 
biennial convention in St. Louis last May, and seven 
days we sat in council — daughters from the South, 
where the great, wide-spreading paternal oak vies with 
the palm, magnolia, and acacia in casting its benign 
shade — sisters from the East, where maple, elm, and 
chestnut burst into varied green and glow and flame 
and mellow under autumn skies. Comrades from the 
North, where forest paths are carpeted with the fra- 
grant needle of the fir and pine. Co-workers from the 



American Forest Congress 429 

Rockies, Cascades, and Sierras, where the king of the 
larches, the Douglas spruce and the majestic Sequoias 
stand alone as sole survivors on the horizon of antiquity 
and speak of a past so remote that history makes no 
attempt to follow. 

From each section of the country came the delegates, 
that as loyal daughters of this Republic they might 
consider those problems that stand closest to the 
nation's life and most affect her common weal. The 
seven days were crowded full of earnest thought and 
anxious desire to know how best to combat the forces 
of evil and dispel ignorance to the end that our land 
may be filled with prosperous homes and we be a 
virtuous and happy people. 

Forestry we approached last as if to be reminded 
that back of the whirr of spindles, the infected air of 
sweat shops and the stiffling, vice-polluting atmosphere 
of crowded tenements, after consideration of soulless 
corporations and corrupt party politics we should 
move back to nature and take comfort in the thought 
that in field and forest lies the nation's hope. The 
land policy and the forest policy of our country holds 
the key to the solution of many of the problems that 
vex the social economist of to-day. Henry Clay held, 
back in the fifties, that the land policy of the country 
will be a vital problem of the day after the tariff 
question has ceased to exist. We recognize in 1905 
that he should have included its twin sister, the forest 
policy, which must go hand in hand with the land 
policy, as an essential part of it, if our valleys shall 
be watered and fruitful, our deep waterways be kept 
open and float our cargoes, and our waste land be 
utiHzed and Columbia's beauty be perpetuated. 

I extend to this body fraternal greetings from that 
General Federation of Women's Clubs, eight hundred 



430 Proceedings of the 

thousand strong, a great reserve force that is coming 
to your aid in forestry, although as yet you may regard 
us as the awkward squad. Forestry was added to our 
work only three years ago, but the committee questions 
if any department of the General Federation can show 
so great an increase of interest during the three years 
as in forestry. Thirty-eight States have, where it was 
not already a department of work, added work in 
forestry, and the committees are enthusiastically 
spreading the propaganda of tree-planting, forest 
preservation, and irrigation. Like a prairie fire, in- 
terest among State Federations in national and State 
movements for the preservation of large blocks of 
forest, is spreading and blazing up here and there 
from the cypress groves of California to the spruce 
clad slopes of New Hampshire. 

Forestry as apprehended in our work covers both 
arboriculture and scientific forestry. A very general 
activity is manifest throughout the length and breadth 
of the country in arboriculture, or tree-planting for 
decorative purposes ; parks, cemeteries, school grounds, 
highways and treeless plains in rural districts, towns 
and villages, are coming into their inheritance of 
beauty and beneficence through the grateful shade and 
presence in their midst of oak and linden, larch and 
chestnut, palm and pine, as numerous instances in the 
State reports testify. Not always have the clubs taken 
the initiative, but all are actively cooperating, and in 
many cases are the originators of forestry movements. 

The work of the Thursday Club of St. Paul deserves 
especial mention. The club last spring obtained the 
consent of the Board of Education to make an appeal, 
through the teachers of the public schools, to the chil- 
dren to purchase and plant fruit trees on Arbor Day, 
which the club agreed to furnish at small cost. The 



American Forest Congress 431 

Park Commission cooperated and allowed each child 
who desired to plant his trees in one of the city parks 
to do so, and tag it with his name. The result was the 
purchase and planting of 14,000 fruit trees by the 
children. 

In the San Diego District of California, out of 
twenty-six clubs, nine have taken up the study of 
forestry : Three have been tree-planting, and the San 
Diego Clubs have raised $5,000 to improve their 1,400 
acre park. Beaufort, S. C, reports twenty-five miles 
of clear hard-shell road, generously provided with 
young shade trees, and a Delaware club has planted 
an avenue of trees one mile long, reaching from one 
town to another. The Massachusetts clubs are giving 
valuable assistance in fighting the brown tail and gipsy 
moth. The women of Salem have aroused public 
interest and the children have gathered and burned 
375,000 moth nests, and adjacent towns are following 
Salem's example. Salem's latter-day burnings are to 
be commended ! 

A member from Minnesota said to me, "You women 
had so much to do with the repeal of the 'Dead and 
Down Timber Act,' under which the Chippewa Reserve 
was administered prior to the application of the Morris 
law, that you ought to tell, sometime during the Con- 
gress, the story of finding the lamp, to show how trees 
were brought under the 'dead and down' provision." 
To make sentiment for the repeal of the bill the Min- 
nesota club women planned an excursion to Leech 
Lake, which is within the reserve. The lumbermen 
in Minnesota are not all converted to conservative 
forestry, and gallantry sometimes is forgotten when 
"so many board feet measure" enter into the proposi- 
tion. Our party numbered about fifty, and included 
Miss Dock, a member of the Pennsylvania Forestry 



432 ProcdeJdings o^ the 

Commission, who is a delegate to this convention. 
There were two available steamers on the lake that 
were very good, and one poor old house-boat. The 
manager had chartered the steamers for our use; 
imagine our surprise on arriving to learn that the 
night before the boiler of the best steamer had been 
scuttled and put out of use and at daybreak the other 
steamer was seen scudding off down the lake. A 
launch was sent flying after the steamer, and it was 
finally hailed and the captain asked to explain where 
he was going, and why he had broken faith with the 
ladies. "Oh," he replied, "a lumberman down the 
lake has engaged the steamer for a week." 

Fortunately, a boiler inspector reached the town that 
morning, special providence you know, and resenting 
such ungallant treatment of the ladies, declared if it 
was possible the boat should be put in repair and be 
ready for use the following morning. Blacksmiths, 
plumbers and carpenters, all lent a hand, and by noon 
the following day the party was able to go aboard. 

Our forestry friend from Pennsylvania was anxious 
to see the character of the second growth on the 
reserve, and seeing a bold bluff at that point, and with 
Father Wright, chief of the Chippewas and missionary 
at the agency for forty years, to act as guide, we made 
a landing. 

Our astonishment can be imagined when we found 
each one of those beautiful old virgin pines burned at 
the root, just enough to bring it under the condemned 
list. Unfamiliar with the vicious workings of the dead 
and down law, we looked about to learn the cause of 
the fire. Not a leaf, twig, or grass blade was scorched, 
there was no sign of tramp or camper, but on examin- 
ing the burning in the noblest tree of all the group we 
discovered a small kerosene lamp almost melted down. 



Ame:rican Fore:st Congress 433 

Father Wright sat at a little distance looking out 
at the blue waters of the lake over which for centuries 
the birch canoes of his people had glided so swiftly. 
We approached, and holding aloft the lamp, said: 
*'What does this mean?" With a pathos in his voice 
that I shall never forget, he replied, "Dead and Down 
Timber Act, burn, want to buy." 

I assure you the old lamp was good campaign mate- 
rial. At our next State meeting, when our brothers 
were present, we told the story and exhibited the lamp 
and said, "Are not the Indians the wards of this nation ? 
Shall we, through our laws, offer a premium for 
criminal practices? This lamp should cause blush of 
shame to mantle the cheek of every honest voter in 
Minnesota and kindle a back fire of indignation that 
should wipe from off the statutes such nefarious lav/s. 

It is true, women do not vote, but who shall say 
that they are actually "counted out?" Let me illus- 
trate that we have a little influence, by another incident 
in our forest reserve campaign. When the stress 
came, and the news reached us that some of our 
Minnesota members in Washington had gone over to 
the enemy, the club women concluded it was desirable 
to send representatives to interview our Congressmen. 
On reaching Washington, we first sent our cards to a 
member with whom we had a personal acquaintance, 
and were received most graciously with this greeting, 
"When did you arrive, how did you leave my con- 
stituents, and what can I do to enhance the pleasure 
and profit of your visit?" But as soon as we men- 
tioned the forest reserve the atmosphere seemed sud- 
denly struck by a nor'easter and the mercury fell as 
quickly as at Chilkoot Pass, and in icy accents these 
words fell upon our ears : "Well, ladies, I'm not much 
interested in that forest reserve scheme, and I don't 



434 Proceedings of the 

think my constituents are!" We replied are we not 
your constituents ? ''Oh, yes, of course, I want to please 
the ladies," he answered, and triflingly added, "but 
you know the mosquitoes are too thick!" Disregard- 
ing his trifling remark, the women of Minnesota are 
desperately in earnest in this matter. We represent 
the State Federation of Women's Clubs, which has a 
membership of between six and seven thousand, and 
you know that six or seven thousand women represent 
collectively six or seven thousand husbands and a few 
thousand sons, who will possibly vote as their fathers 
vote. We grant you, the mosquitoes are thick, but 
they could hardly disable you for your Congressional 
duties, but beware of setting six or seven thousand 
bees buzzing in women's bonnets. And, strange to 
relate, the mercury began to rise until the atmosphere 
was quite tropical. 

Some two weeks later, having retired from the field, 
we dared to send a batch of petitions to this same 
member, and received this gracious answer: "Yours 
at hand, petitions submitted to the House and referred 
to the Committee on Public Lands, and I desire to 
assure you, if I can advance the interests of the forest 
reserve movement in any way, command my services 
at any time." 

Do not think our interview with the member was 
intended to savor of intimidation. We simply stated 
facts and gave a little kindly information. You know 
a woman has no "axe to grind," she just speaks out 
what is in her heart, and so sometimes it carries 
weight — being a club woman, of course it carried 
weight. 

I desire to say, in closing, that the passage of a bill 
to increase the Navy of the United States, finds many 
friends, and is an easy proposition compared with 



American Forest Congress 435 

securing an appropriation for a forest reserve, for 
you see there isn't anything in the latter for anybody 
except the people. While, for the former you can 
''line up" a solid phalanx of shipbuilders, armor plate, 
and boiler makers and all their henchmen to bear down 
upon our Congressmen with silver-tipped arrows and 
promissory appeals that win. We foresters work for 
the people, and so oftimes our arguments and bills 
have to wait a long while before they are given a 
hearing and penetrate the crust of human selfishness. 



Address by Filibert Roth 

Professor of Forestry, University of Michigan 

T CAME here as an individual to enjoy meeting 
friends and gather inspiration which will enable 
me to perform better my duty as a citizen, as a servant 
of the Michigan Forestry Commission, and as a teacher 
at the University. I also came here as the servant 
of that Commission, representing it, I am afraid, very 
poorly. I came here to say to you that Michigan is 
still in the front ranks of this union as one of its 
greatest States. For nearly a century we in Michigan 
have been hewing out of the forests the homes for 
more than two million people, our lumbermen have 
hustled, and have provided the lumber to build the 
homes of the prairie States from the Dominion to 
Texas. We worked faster than we knew. Had we 
continued with the ox team and the old-time "up and 
down" sash saw, we would still have pine to sell. But 
the old methods were too slow ; the old-fashioned "cog 
gear" gave away to "rope feed," and rope feed was 
thrown away and replaced by "shotgun" feed to rush 
the timber against the whirling saw. 

Working with steam and electricity we went beyond 



436 PROCEKDINGS 01^ THE 

our proper mark, and for years it seemed as if the signs 
of the times would remain unheeded. And many of 
us began to wonder what the matter was with our 
State of Michigan. The people of the Dominion, our 
neighbors, were awake, and introduced better methods ; 
the older States had gone ahead, and, realizing that 
they, too, had gone too far, had begun to check the 
damage and prepare for its correction ; but we in our 
State were still going the swift pace of slaughter and 
destruction. Were we to be behind? No. I have 
come to say to you that Michigan is not behind the 
rest of the States. We were merely too busy to realize 
just where we were. Michigan has awakened to the 
importance of doing; she has begun to check the evil, 
she is organizing to repair the damage. Michigan has 
a Forestry Commission, which looks after the forest 
interests of the State; it has begun a proper land 
policy and established the nucleus of a State forest, and 
is training its boys in the care of the woods at its two 
great institutions, the University of Michigan, and the 
Agricultural College. The business men of every city 
in the State are united in a desire — even demand — 
that something be done and done at once, to check 
further timber devastation and to restore to the State 
the supply of material so necessary for its welfare. 
We have with us the people, even the women of our 
State have taken up the matter of forestry, and that 
great factor of civilization, civic and social improve- 
ment, the Federation of Womens Clubs of Michigan 
has begun a systematic, well directed campaign in favor 
of State and private forestry. We are moving, and 
our path is clearly before us, and our opportunities are 
as good as those of any State in the Union. It gives 
me great pleasure to tell you of this, and to say that 
Michigan is here with you, and stands ready to co- 
operate with its sister States in this great movement. 



American Forest Congress 437 

Address by Dr. C. A. Schenck 

Director, Biltmore Forest School 

]V/f Y connection with forestry in western North 
CaroHna is of a three-fold character: I am a 
kimberman, a forester and a teacher. 

I am a lumberman, and I must confess to being 
somewhat afraid as a lumberman to appear before this 
audience. Still, while in charge of a large forest in 
western North Carolina, I cannot help being a lum- 
berman. Without lumbering no cash dividend is ob- 
tainable from forest investments. Therefore, I cut 
the trees, though I can truthfully add that I do not 
cut all the tree — for the reason that it pays better not 
to cut all of them, under the conditions now prevailing 
in western North Carolina. 

We are just beginning a new year, and, as new year's 
wishes are in order, I wish that every one of you were 
possessed of 50,000 acres of hardwood lands in the 
Appalachian range ! If you were the owners of such 
timber tracts in our mountains, or anywhere in the 
East, what would you do with the timber ? I ask your 
conscience, would you let the timber stand, or would 
you convert that timber, all of it or part of it, into 
money? We are in the habit of blaming the other 
fellow for cutting the trees. Now, pardon me when 
I ask : What would you do with the trees if you 
owned them? 

Secondly, I am a forester, and as a forester I am 
meant to raise trees, partly by planting, partly by 
lending Nature a helping hand. The owner of the 
Biltmore estate, without doubt, would authorize me to 
practice more silviculture if he could consider silvicul- 
ture (the raising and tending of a second growth) a 
remunerative investment; I had better, perhaps, say a 

safe and remunerative investment. 

o 



43^ Proceedings of the 

However, as fires annually rage over large sections 
of our grounds, it is hazardous — nay ! it is almost 
folly — to invest money in silvicultural pursuits. At 
Biltmore we are forced to restrict reforestation to such 
regions in the proximity of Biltmore House in which 
we can control fires absolutely. In a large primeval 
tract covering 120,000 acres of backwoods, absolute 
fire protection is out of the question. Here I do not 
attempt to enforce regeneration, simply allowing Na- 
ture to do the work as best she can, trying at the same 
time to protect the second growth from fire wherever 
it appears. 

Foresters are very frequently, I think, of the opinion 
that the little trees — second growth — are really the 
best money makers. Foresters working in the Appa- 
lachians might just as well begin to change their 
minds. The fact has been pointed out to-day re- 
peatedly that the price of hardwood stumpage is 
increasing rapidly. If that is true, the big tree is the 
best money maker, and really mature trees do not 
exist — ^moribunds excepted — where and as long as the 
price of stumpage advances rapidly. 

In 1896 I sold many a fine white oak at fifty cents 
per thousand feet, board measure. I wish I could 
replace these trees. I would gladly put them back in 
the woods at $4 a thousand — because they are worth 
now $5 a thousand. In 1898 I got for similar trees 
$1.25 a thousand feet, board measure; in 1902 I re- 
ceived $2.50, and last year I found a man who was 
willing to give me as much as $8 per thousand ! 

Thus it happens that the big trees — the three, four, 
five and six-footers — are my pride, more so than the 
seedlings and saplings. I hold the big giants dearly ; 
I refrain from cutting them — merely for the reason 
that they are my best money makers, the best part of 
my investments— and also the safest part of my invest- 



American Forest Congress 439 

ments since they are not subject to destructive forest 
fires. So much for the forest. 

Finally, I am the director of the Biltmore Forest 
School, established at Biltmore, North Carolina, in 
1898. I am delighted, though it makes me feel old, to 
see so many of my former pupils present in this hall. 
Permit me to use this chance for reminding them for- 
cibly of my old demands and unceasing teachings — so 
often repeated with the regularity of a canary bird or of 
a whippoorwill — keep constantly before your eyes the 
fact that forestry subserves lumbering, that forestry is 
lumbering to a very large extent. 

Silviculture and lumbering together will, I think, 
compose the work of the forester in this country for 
many a year to come. The greater portion of prac- 
tical wood's work will lie in the line of lumbering, and 
the lesser part will consist of silviculture merely be- 
cause silviculture is not as safe an investment at 
present, nor is it as remunerative as lumbering. 

The time will come when the reserve will be the 
case. It will come when the superiority of conserva- 
tive lumbering over destructive lumbering is clearly 
evidenced by the larger number of dollars which con- 
servative lumbering can draw as a dividend from the 
forest. 



Address by Rutherford P. Hayes 

President, The Appalachian Forest Reserve Association 

C O far most of the discussions here have related to 
the extreme West. The problems that they are 
working out there we have with us in the Southern 
Appalachians, The effect of destroying the forests 
and filling up the rivers is comparable with what is 
going on now on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge 



440 Proceedings of the 

Mountains. The rivers running from there through 
North CaroHna, South CaroHna and Georgia used to 
be all clear mountain streams, and in times of flood 
there was simply a flow of water and after it passed 
away that was the end of it. Now they have their 
times of higher flood and their times of greater drought 
and the river beds and mill dams are all being ruined 
by the silt that is washed down. We seem to have a 
very much more fluid soil when it gets wet than a great 
deal of that we have in the North, and the extent of 
this destruction is becoming apparent all through the 
South. On the Catawba River what were a few years 
ago good farm lands are now covered with eight, ten, 
or twelve feet of sand and gravel. Two years ago 
there was a flood along the French Broad River and 
the destruction was very great. It reached Knoxville, 
and it was the first time that anybody in Tennessee 
had become interested in the preservation of these 
forests. 

We have standing on the Appalachian Mountains, 
the Blue Ridge and the great Smoky ranges from 
southern Virginia through to northern Alabama, the 
last remains of the hardwood forests of the East. The 
Blue Ridge is pretty well cleared. We have been try- 
ing, through our Appalachian Forest Reserve Associa- 
tion, to create an interest in Congress that would save 
the balance of this country from being cleared. Con- 
gress has appropriated over four and one-half million 
dollars in the past three years for the improvement of 
the rivers in this section, and unless these forests are 
preserved, most of this money is wasted. The Great 
Smoky range, the boundary line between North Caro- 
lina and Tennessee, has been inaccessible as compared 
with the Blue Ridge, and is little cleared. I do not 
know how much you know of the particulars of that 
country. We have as rough mountains as they have in 



American Forest Congress 441 

the Rocky Mountains. We have what they had years 
ago, mountains covered with forests. We are getting 
to have what they have now, bare mountains. The 
illustrations that are being given of the Rocky Moun- 
tains and the results that are going on there, we can 
see in all its different states, and we are anxious to 
have our friends help us to try and save this great 
region. Looking at it from the economic point, it 
means the saving of water power, and the transporta- 
tion of the entire South, from where the Tennessee 
River enters the Ohio, to the south and east clear 
around to the Potomac River. 

I have prepared a resolution on the subject of forest 
reservation and will present it to the Resolutions Com- 
mittee. We want to have the Government buy this 
tract of land in the Great Smoky Mountains, the boun- 
dary between North Carolina and Tennessee, about 
two hundred miles long and from twenty to forty miles 
wide, and control it as the forest reserves in the West 
are controlled. If any one within that territory wishes 
to retain his property and will manage it on proper 
forest plans, there will be no reason for interfering 
with him. There will be rights of way through the 
forest reserve the same as has been mentioned for the 
West. This reserve will be within twenty-four hours* 
ride of three-fourths of the population of the United 
States, and would be available as a pleasure ground for 
a large proportion of our country. Of course the 
Yellowstone Park is the park of the United States, 
but a forest reserve in the Southern Appalachians, 
which could be used as a pleasure ground as well, 
would be of much more immediate interest to our 
people than one so far away as the other. As I said 
before, I will prepare a resolution and give it to our 
Resolutions Committee and hope for your favorable 
support. 



442 Proceedings of the 

Address by Mr. Elihu Stewart 

Superintendent, Forestry Branch, Department of the Interior, Canada 

I HAVE listened with a great deal of pleasure indeed 
to the various addresses that have been made, 
and above all, I think all who have come from across 
the lines and all who have come from this side of 
the lines, cannot help but be wonderfully impressed 
with the magnificent address that President Roosevelt 
gave us yesterday. 

I have heard a good deal about your system of work, 
and I am in position to know what your Bureau of 
Forestry is doing, because I get all its bulletins. But 
above all, with such a President as you have, with such 
a head of the nation as you have, and with such an 
administrator as you have in Mr. Pinchot, I feel that 
there is a guaranty above all others that your forestry 
matters will be looked after in the future, and that 
you will progress in the lines that Mr. Pinchot has so 
admirably pointed out as the direction he intends to 
give the interests of forestry matters in the United 
States of America. I am not going to say a word 
about our system across the line. My friend, Mr. 
White, has, I think, done that sufficiently, and more 
in that line would not be interesting to you, except 
this: 

It has only been about five years since I undertook, 
in a very feeble way, to organize the forestry service 
for the Federal Government in Canada. Shortly after 
starting the work, I wrote to my friend Pinchot and 
told him I was anxious to learn of the workings of the 
Bureau here, and asked him if he would be kind 
enough to let me know when he thought would be best 
or most convenient for me to come here and endeavor 
to get information as to the workings of his Bureau 



American Forest Congress 443 

in this country, which had been in operation for some 
Httle time. He repHed that he thought the best time 
would be when the meeting of the American Forestry 
Association was being held. So I came over — I think 
it was five years ago — and on my return — I think 
somewhere between here and Baltimore — I was alone 
on the train. I went into the smoker, and I think there 
must have been inspiration there — it isn't often I have 
inspirations, and don't believe I ever had one before 
that resulted in anything, but this one did — for it 
occurred to me, why could not we have a Canadian 
Forestry Association ? Once the thought flashed across 
my mind I knew that we could ; and 1 want to say that 
as a legitimate offspring of that inspiration and his 
association in the United States, we have a most suc- 
cessful one in Canada. Not so much on account of 
the numbers — we have only about six hundred mem- 
bers as yet — but it is the personnel. We found that 
the best people in the country were just waiting for 
an opportunity to express their views collectively and 
at once. We got together a committee formed gover- 
nors, ex-governors, senators, and influential men in 
every part of the Dominion, commencing in Prince Ed- 
ward Island, where we have one of the most active men, 
through Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and every dis- 
trict in the great Northwest — even the Yukon. Every 
district is represented. And without taking up your 
tim.e — as I know I must not do so — I wish to say that 
we are having a meeting in the old city of Quebec 
on the nth of March — a meeting of that association, 
and I want to invite every one who can come from 
this side of the line to come over at that time and make 
us a visit. 

One thought more occurs to me. We have a fire 
ranging system in the West similar to yours in the 
reserves. I was away out in Alberta, near the Priest 



444 Proce:e:dings of thi: 

River Reserve, and two of the rangers came over while 
I was at a Httle town called Cardston. I think perhaps 
it was their practice to come over there on Saturday 
nights. They were in the hotel, discussing interna- 
tional matters — the boundaries. I had to go back 
about eleven o'clock at night in order to start in the 
morning, and about that time the discussion was be- 
coming very animated. I hope it has been decided. 
I simply say that in order to show how closely the 
people out there along the boundaries are related. 
And as being of interest to the people of Washington 
and Oregon, I wish to say that we are doing all we 
can to guard the timber upon the upper reaches of 
the Columbia River, which, as you know, has its rise 
in British Columbia and finally finds its outlet at 
Astoria, and we shall continue to do our part so far as 
our limited means will permit. 



Address by Mr. G. O. Shields 

President, League of American Sportsmen 

I REPRESENT the League of American Sportsmen, 
*■' which has a membership of 10,700 men and 
women, distributed throughout every State and Terri- 
tory of the Union, also largely in Canada and Mexico. 
As every man who has ever thought of the subject 
knows, the causes of game protection and forest pro- 
tection go hand in hand. Whatever you ladies and 
gentlemen do in the interest of preserving the forests 
you do as well in the interest of preserving the wild 
life of this country, and we claim that is a subject 
worthy the attention of all earnest men and women. 

We have two important measures before Congress 
to-day, on which we need the assistance of this Con- 



American Forest Congress 445 

gress. One of these concerns especially the Territory 
of Oklahoma, of which my friend has just spoken. 
The Wichita Forest Reserve was created some years 
ago, and Congressman Lacey, of Iowa, introduced a 
bill at the last session to erect that forest reserve into 
a game preserve, for the purpose of propagating quail, 
prairie chickens, wild turkeys and deer, and then 
shipping them to the Northern and Eastern States, 
where they have been exterminated or nearly so. 

The other measure affects all the forest reservations. 
It aims to empower the President of the United States 
to set aside certain sections in forest reserves already 
created, to be known as game preserves; to stop all 
shooting thereon and, if necessary, all fishing; to let 
the game have a few asylums in these mountain regions 
where it can live and increase. 

Every man and woman in this audience knows what 
a wonderful success has been made in the Yellowstone 
Park, in preserving the wild animals there. Mr. Lacey 
told me to-day he had just seen photographs from the 
park showing 500 antelope grazing, some of them in 
the streets of Gardner, a town five miles outside the 
park. There are supposed to be 30,000 or 35,000 elk 
in the park. There are about forty buffaloes, several 
hundred Rocky Mountain sheep and many thousands 
of deer. 

I want to impress on your minds these important 
facts that are associated so intimately with the cause 
of forest preservation. The object of setting aside 
these forest reserves, the primary object, is to preserve 
trees; the secondary object, the important one of the 
association I represent, is the preservation of wild 
animals and birds. We are working as industriously 
for the preservation of insectivorous and song birds 
as we are for the game birds. 



446 Proceedings oe the 

Another thing I desire to call attention to, and on 
this point I shall present a resolution when the time 
comes. It is the disastrous and alarming destruction 
of our forest for the purpose of making paper. We 
must all have our reading matter, and the problem of 
supplying wood pulp for the making of paper is a 
serious one. I do not know whether it is to be taken 
up in this Congress or not, but it certainly should be 
considered. I want you to ask Congress to offer a 
very generous reward to any person who will devise 
or discover a method of making pulp, and from that 
paper, from any product that farmers can raise on 
their farms every year. It seems to me this is a very 
important subject for this Congress to consider. 



Address by Mr. Charles L. Pack 

nPHERE is little I can say to edify this Congress. 
I am simply a plain owner of trees, of forest 
lands in different parts of the country. I have taken 
great interest in this subject for many years, and I 
may say also that I have learned a great deal this week 
in Washington. I have studied the commercial side 
of forestry at home and abroad, and I have come to 
believe that the man who cuts down a tree should plant 
or cultivate or care for tv/o new ones. Our economic 
laws should make it an inducement for him to do so. 
We must do something to catch up, as we have been 
very tardy in applying what experience teaches on 
this subject. The problem of private forestry is a 
great one. I ami caring for, at present, several thou- 
sand acres of small timber in different parts of the 
country, but I am faced with the taxation question; 



American Forest Congress 447 

and I think one of the greatest questions of forestry 
within the States having to do with the private owner- 
ship of the forest and the promotion of forestry locally, 
is the taxation question. Much baby timber is cut 
because its owners can't pay exorbitant taxes. I will 
not detain you by giving my ideas at this time upon 
the subject, but I think an equitable State taxation 
scheme can be devised with the aid of those present. 
I believe that the time is long past when the Govern- 
ment should, through the operation of any law, sell or 
dispose of timber by the acre, but that every tree 
disposed of should be under the direction of the Forest 
Service, and be sold by the thousand feet. And, I 
believe, further, that while in years past our forefathers 
cut the trees of the forest without leave or hindrance, 
that now we all readily see that no man has a private 
right to the timber on public lands without paying a 
full consideration. Under our present laws much tim- 
ber is annually obtained, and at a fraction of its actual 
value. And, I believe, that the same is true with 
regard to the use of the forest reserves by the stock- 
man, by the sheep raiser and the cattle raiser. I think 
the time is at hand when they should pay a small, but 
equitable and just charge for the use of the ranges. 



RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE 
AMERICAN FOREST CONGRESS 

Resolved, That we urge upon Congress and upon 
all legislative bodies the necessity at all times of giv- 
ing full protection to the forests of the country and of 
preserving them through wise and beneficent laws, so 
that they may contribute in the most complete manner 
to the continued prosperity of the country. 

Resolved, That we earnestly commend to all state 
authorities the enactment and enforcement of laws for 
the protection of the forests from fire, and for reduc- 
ing the burden of taxation on lands held for forest re- 
production in order that persons and corporations may 
be induced to put in practice the principles of forest 
conservation. 

Resolved, That we are in entire accord with the ef- 
orts to repeal the Timber and Stone Act, and we favor 
the passage of an act as a substitute therefor which 
shall confer authority upon the proper officer of the 
United States to sell timber growing on the public 
lands when such sale shall be for the public welfare. 

Resolved, That we favor the passage by Congress of 
an amendment to the law regarding exchange of lands 
included within a forest reserve so that such exchanges 
or lieu selections shall be confined to lands of equivalent 
value or similar condition as regards forest growth.* 

Resolved, That the law which prohibits the export 
of forest reserve timber from the state in which it is 
grown should be repealed as to the states in which the 
export of such timber is in the public interest, and in no 
others. 

*Iyieu land law was repealed. 



American Forest Congress 449 

Resolved, That we favor the passage of a law which 
will authorize the sale of all non-mineral products 
of the forest reserves, the proceeds of such sales to be 
applied to their management and protection, and the 
construction of roads and trails within the forest re- 
serve. 

Resolved, That we heartily approve the movement 
for the unification of all the forest work of the Govern- 
ment, including the administration of the National 
Forest Reserves, in the Department of Agriculture, 
and urge upon Congress the necessity for immediate 
action to that end.** 

Resolved, That Congress declare forfeited all right 
of way permits not exercised promptly upon issuance, 
and secure to all industries engaged in lawful busi- 
ness, and which will exercise promptly their permits, 
the possession of necessary rights of way, in the same 
manner that railroads and irrigating companies are 
secured in their rights of way, and that the various 
right-of-way acts on forest reserves and other public 
lands be so amended as to provide for reasonable pay- 
ment for the use of these valuable rights. 

Resolved, That this Congress urges upon all schools, 
and especially the rural schools, the necessity for a 
study of forests and tree-planting in their effect upon 
the general well-being of the nation, and in particular 
upon the wealth and happiness of communities through 
the modification of local climate ; and that we urge all 
state legislatures to provide laws and financial aid to 
consolidate the rural schools in units sufficiently large 
that forestry, agriculture, and home economics may be 
successfully taught by precept, example, and practical 
work. 

**Passed by Congress and signed by President Roosevelt 
February i, 1905. 



450 Prockedings of the 

Resolved, That this Congress recommends the in- 
crease of opportunities for general forest education 
in schools and colleges, and for professional training 
in post-graduate schools ; and approves the movement 
to extend and systematize industrial education in the 
interest of a more general distribution of the popula- 
tion on the land. 

Resolved, That the Congress of the United States 
be asked to appropriate adequate sums for the promo- 
tion of forest education and forest experiment work in 
the agricultural colleges and experiment stations of 
the United States; Provided, however, such appropri- 
ations be made directly to state forestry departments, 
bureaus, or commissions, where existing, to be used 
in their respective states as may seem best for forestry 
educational purposes. 

Resolved, That this Congress approves and reaf- 
firms the resolutions of various scientific and commer- 
cial bodies during the past few years in favor of the es- 
tablishment of national forest reserves in the South- 
ern Appalachian Mountains and in the White Moun- 
tains of New Hampshire, and that we earnestly urge 
the immediate passage of bills for these purposes which 
are now pending in both houses of Congress. 

Resolved, That we protest against the attempt to re- 
duce the area of the Minnesota National Forest Re- 
serve and against any step which would enhance the 
difficulty of the perpetuation of the forests upon it. 

Resolved, That we heartily endorse the movement 
for the purchase of the Calaveras Grove of Big Trees 
by the National Government and earnestly recom- 
mend the prompt enactment of legislation to that end ; 
and, further, we recommend the reconveying by the 
State of California to the National Government of the 
Yosemite Park in order that this may be adequately 



.Amkrican Forest Congress 451 

protected and placed upon the same basis as other 
national parks. 

Resolved, That this Congress urges tree-planting and 
the preservation of shade trees along public highways 
throughout America. 

Resolved, That we approve the suggestion that a 
tree be planted at Mount Vernon to commemorate 
the American Forest Congress, and that funds for this 
purpose be collected through Forestry and Irrigation. 

Resolved, That as Oklahoma v/ould immeasurably 
profit by increased land valuation resulting from great- 
er crop capacity as the outgrov^^th of wind reduction; 
therefore, the territory should be empowered to ofifer 
school land occupants a reasonable realty tax reduction 
during a stipulated growing period of tree wind- 
breaks; Provided, that the department of government 
under which the nation's forestry interests are managed 
shall outline, control-, and perfect, in all particulars, de- 
termining how and to which lands the provisions shall 
apply, except that purchasers at the time of sale have 
option as to acceptance of these terms. 

Resolved, That it is the sense of this Congress that 
the National Homestead Law should be amended so 
as to require the planting of at least 5 per cent of the 
area of a homestead before final title be acquired, and 
that the tree planting be under the supervision of the 
Bureau of Forestrv. 



LIST OF DELEGATES 

Adams, J. B., Washington, D. C. ; representing Bureau 

of Forestry. 
Adams, Miss B. E., Washington, D. C. ; General Land 

Office. 
Agar, John G., New York City ; Society for Protection 

of the Adirondacks. 
Agnew, Mrs. Kate L., Valparaiso, Ind. ; State of 

Indiana. 
Ahern, Capt. Geo. P., Manila; Forestry Bureau of 

Philippines. 
Aitken, Geo., Woodstock, Vt. ; Vermont Forestry 

Association. 
Akerman, A. K., State Forester, Boston, Mass. ; 

Massachusetts Forestry Association. 
Allen, E. T., Forest Inspector, Bureau of Forestry, 

Washington, D. C. 
Allen, E. W., Office of Ex. Stations, Department of 

Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
Anderson, A. A., New York City; Forest Reserve 

Service and New York Chamber of Commerce. 
Anderson, J. W., General Land Office, Washington, 

D. C. 
Andrews, Byron, Washington, D. C. ; American 

Forestry Association from South Dakota. 
Atkinson, A. L. C, Honolulu, Hawaii. 
Ayres, Philip W., Forester, Society for Protection of 

New Hampshire Forests, Concord, N. H. 
Baily, Joshua L., Philadelphia, Pa. ; American Forestry 

Association from Pennsylvania. 
Baird, Dan W., Nashville, Tenn. ; Editor Southern 

Lninbcrman. 



Ame:rican Forest Congress 453 

Baker, J. F., Bureau of Forestry, Washington, D. C. ; 
Saline Valley Telephone Company. 

Ball, C. R., Washington, D. C. ; Iowa Park and 
Forestry Association. 

Barber, J. T., Eau Claire, Wis.; Mississippi Valley 
Lumberman's Association and Northwestern Hem- 
lock Manufacturers' Association. 

Barnard, E. C, U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, 
D. C. 

Barns, W. E., St. Louis, Mo.; Editor St. Louis 
Lumber man. 

Bartlett, J. H., Middleboro, Ky. ; State of Kentucky. 

Becker, G. F., U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, 
D. C. 

Beecher, F. R., Retail Lumber Dealers' Association, 
Canadaigua, N. Y. 

Bell, Dr. Robt., Agricultural Department, Ottawa, 
Ontario, Canada; Canadian Forestry Association. 

Bentz, Hon. P. J., Woonsocket, S. D. ; State of South 
Dakota. 

Berg, Walter G., Philadelphia, Pa.; Lehigh Valley 
Railroad system. 

Berthrong, L P., Washington, D. C. ; General Land 
Office. 

Bidwell, Geo. F. Chicago, 111.; Chicago and North- 
western Railway Company. 

Bein, Morris, U. S. Geological Survev, Washington, 
D. C. 

Binford, L. M., Saco, Maine; National Association of 
Box and Box Shook Manufacturers of the United 
States. 

Bitler, F. L., Philadelphia, Pa. ; Pennsylvania Forestry 
Association. 

Blades, J. B., Elizabeth City, N. C. ; National Whole- 
sale Lumber Dealers' Association and North Caro- 
lina Forestry Association. 



454 Proceedings of the 

Blanchard, C. J., U. S. Geological Survey, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

Bliss, Geo. H(. Spokane, Wash. ; Reclamation Service. 

Blodgett, James H., Washington, D. C. ; American 
Forestry Association. 

Bogue, Prof. E. E., Michigan Agricultural College, 
Agricultural College P. O., Michigan. 

Bond, Frank, General Land Office, Washington, D. C. 

Borst, Theo. F., Clinton, Mass. ; American Forestry 
Association from Massachusetts. 

Brooks, Hon. F. E., Colorado Springs, Colo. ; State 
of Colorado. 

Bowers, Edward A., New Haven, Conn. ; Connecticut 
Forestry Association and American Forestry As- 
sociation. 

Brooks, A. H., U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, 
D. C. 

Bruce, E. S., Bureau of Forestry, Washington, D. C. 

Bruce, Grant, Bureau of Forestry, Washington, D. C. ; 
American Forestry Association. 

Bulllock, Capt. Seth, Deadwood, S. D. ; South Dakota 
Forest Reserve Service. 

Bunker, Wm. M., Washington, D. C. ; Chamber of 
Commerce of San Francisco. 

Burkholder, S., Crawfordsville, Ind. ; National Whole- 
sale Lumber Dealers' Association. 

Burton, P. G., Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone 
Company, Washington, D. C. 

Campbell, R. H., Secretary Canadian Forestry Asso- 
ciation, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 

Candland, W. D., Mt. Pleasant, Utah; Utah Wool 
Growers' Association. 

Cary, Austin, Brunswick, Me. ; American Forestry 
Association from Maine. 

Chapman, C. S., Bureau of Forestry, Washington, 
D. C. 



American Forest Congress 455 

Chapman, Herman H., Bureau of Forestry, Washing- 
ton, D. C. ; American Forestry Association. 

Charlton, R. H., Denver, Colo. ; Forest Reserve Ser- 
vice. 

Chittenden, A. K., Bureau of Forestry, Washington, 
D. C. 

Chown, C. Y., Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, 
Canada. 

Churchill, C. S., Roanoke, V^a. ; Norfolk and Western 
Railway. 

Clark, C. C, Washington, D. C. ; Department of Agri- 
culture. 

Clark, Hon. Clarence D., U. S. Senate, Washington, 
D. C. ; State of Wyoming. 

Clark, Dr. J. F., Department of the Interior, Ontario, 
Canada; Ontario Bureau of Forestry. 

Clark, Dr. Wm. B., State Geologist, Baltimore, Md. ; 
State Geological and Economic Society. 

Clarke, S. A., General Land Office, Washington, D. 
C. ; State of Oregon. 

Clement, G. E., Bureau of Forestry, Washington, D. 
C. ; American Forestry Association. 

Cleveland, J. F., Chicago, 111. ; Chicago and North- 
western Railway. 

Clothier, Geo. L., Bureau of Forestry, Washington, 
D. C, 

Cochran, Geo. G., New York City ; Erie Railroad 
Company. 

Cone, Albert B., Chicago, 111.; Ainerican Lumbennan. 

Conklin, Robt. S., Harrisburg, Pa. ; Pennsylvania For- 
estry Association and Forestry Commission. 

Cooke, Chas. B., Richmond, Va. ; State of Virginia. 

Cooper, Thomas, St. Paul, Minn. ; Northern Pacific 
Railway Company. 

Cosgriffe, T. A., Cheyenne, Wyo. ; Northern Pacific 
Railroad. 



45^ Proceedings oi^ the 

Coville, F. v., Washington, D. C. ; American Forestry 
Association. 

Cox, Wm. T., St. Anthony Park, Minn.; Minnesota 
State Forestry Association. 

Craft, Q. R., Washington, D. C. ; American Forestry 
Association from Kansas. 

Craig, A. R., Mesa, Colo. ; Forest Reserve Service. 

Crawford, C. G., Washington, D. C. ; American For- 
estry Association. 

Crenshaw, R. C, Frankfort, Ky. ; State of Kentucky. 

Curtin, Gen. G. W., Sutton, W. Va. ; State of West 
Virginia. 

Craig, D. A., Washington, D. C. ; Washington Evening 
Star. 

Crenshaw, A. P., Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone 
Company, Washington, D. C. 

Croft, A. J., Enosburg, Vt. ; Vermont Maple Sugar 
Makers' Association. 

Cutler, J. H., Raleigh, N. C. ; State of North Carolina. 

Davant, T. S., Roanoke, Va. ; Norfolk and Western 
Railway Company. 

Davis, L. G., Saratoga, Wyo. ; Wyoming Forest Re- 
serve Sc^Tice. 

Daw, N. L., Roanoke, Va. ; Norfolk and Western 
Railway Company. 

Daish, John B., Washington, D. C. ; National Hay 
Association. 

Davis, A. P., U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, 
D. C. 

Deale, J. T., Chairman North Carolina Pine Associa- 
tion, Norfolk, Va. 

Deering, Hon. Frank C. Bedford, Me. ; State of Maine. 

Defebaugh, J. E., Chicago, 111. ; Editor American 
Lumherman. 

Dezendorf, Mr., General Land Office, Washington, 
D. C. 



American Forest Congress 457 

Dickinson, L. F., Greenfield, Mass. ; National Associa- 
tion of Box and Box Shook Manufacturers of the 
United States. 

Dill, Lewis, Baltimore, Md. ; National Wholesale Lum- 
ber Dealers' Association. 

Dixon, Hon. J. M., Washington, D. C. ; Montana 
Stock Growers' Association. 

Dock, Miss Mira L., State Forestry Commission, Har- 
risburg, Pa. 

Donnelly, J. W., General Land Office, Washington, 
D. C. 

DuBois, C. L., General Land Office, Washington, 
D. C. 

Durgin, Jno. C, Sandy Hill, N. Y. ; Forest, Water 
Storage and Manufacturing Association. 

Drummond, A. T., Toronto, Canada; American For- 
estry Association. 

Eaton, Hon. Geo. H., Calais, Me. ; State of Maine. 

Eberlein, Chas. W., Southern Pacific Railway. 

Eddy, J. R., Washington, D. C. ; National Geological 
Park. 

Edmands, J. Rayner, Boston, Mass. ; Massachusetts 
Forestry Association. 

Elliott, Howard T., St. Paul, Minn. ; President North- 
ern Pacific Railway Company. 

Elliott, S. B., State Forestry Commission, Harrisburg, 
Pa. 

Emerson, Col. Geo. H., Hoquiam, Wash. ; Pacific Coast 
Lumbermen. 

England, Charles, Washington, D. C. ; National Hay 
Association. 

FauU, J. H'., University of Toronto, Canada. 

Fellows, A. L., U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, 
D. C. 

Fenn, Maj. F. A., Kalispell, Mont.; Montana Forest 
Reserve Service. 



458 Proceedings of the 

Fernow, Dr. Bernhard E., Ithaca, N. Y. ; American 
Forestry Association from New York and Society 
for Protection of the Adirondacks. 

Fimple, J. H., General Land Office, Washington, D. C. 

Fischer, Fred C, Tryon, N. C. ; National Lumber 
Manufacturers' Association. 

Fisher, Prof. Richard T., Harvard University, Cam- 
bridge, Mass. 

Fisher, Wm. H., Cincinnati, Ohio ; State of Ohio. 

Fitch, C. H., U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, 
D. C. 

Fletcher, Dr. Jas., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada ; Canadian 
Forestry Association. 

Foley, John, Bureau of Forestry, Washington, D. C. 

Foster, H. D., Washington, D. C. ; American Forestry 
Association. 

Foster, N. C, Wisconsin Hardwood Lumbermen's As- 
sociation, Fairchild, Wis. 

Fowkr, Hon. B. A., Phoenix, Ariz. ; Territory of 
Arizona. 

Fox, Col. Wm. F., Superintendent of State Forests, 
Albany, N. Y. ; Association for Protection of Adi- 
rondacks. 

Franklin, Blake, General Land Office, Washington, 
D. C. 

Freeman, Miss Harriet E., Boston, Mass., American 
Forestry Association from Massachusetts and Mass- 
achusetts Forestry Association. 

Freeman, Hon. Wm. F., State Forester, Indianapolis, 
Ind. ; Indiana State Board of Forestry. 

Fulton, John, State Forestry Commission, Harrisburg, 
Pa. 

Gannett, Dr. Henry, U. S. Geological Survey, Wash- 
ington, D. C. ; Sierra Club. 

Gannett, Miss Mary C, Bureau of Forestry, Wash- 
ington, D. C. ; American Forestry Association. 



American Forest CongrEvSS 459 

Gardner, W. A., Chicago, 111. ; Chicago & Northwest- 
ern Railway. 

Gardner, Wesley J., Bureau of Forestry, Washington, 
D. C. 

Garrett, Robt., Baltimore, Md. ; Delegate-at-large from 
Maryland. 

Garver, L. J., General Land Office, Washington, D. C. 

Gaskill, Alfred, Bureau of Forestry, Washington, D. C. 

Gennett, Andrew, South Carolina ; State of South Car- 
olina. 

Gibson, Edgar, Clyde Park, Mont. ; State of Montana. 

Gilbert, Dr. G. K., Sierra Club, San Francisco, Cal. 

Gilfry, H. H., Washington, D. C. ; State of Oregon. 

Gillenwaters, E. P., Glascow, Ky. ; State of Kentucky. 

Girtanner, Jules, Linden, N. J. ; American Forestry 
Association. 

Goddard, Hon. Albert J., Tacoma, Wash. ; Tacoma 
Cham.ber of Commerce. 

Gosney, E. S., President Arizona Wool Growers' As- 
sociation, Flagstaff, Ariz. 

Green, Dr. Samuel B., St. Anthony Park, Minn. ; State 
of Minnesota and Minnesota State Forestry Asso- 
ciation. 

Green, Prof. W. J., Agricultural Experiment Station, 
Wooster, Ohio ; State of Ohio. 

Grier, T. J., Superintendent Homestake Mining Com- 
pany, Lead, S. D. 

Griffith, E. M., Madison, Wis. ; State Forest Service. 

Grimes, E. P., Maine ; State of Maine. 

Grinnell, Henry, Bureau of Forestry, Washington, D. 
C. 

Griswold, W. T., U. S. Geological Survey, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

Grosvenor, Gilbert H., Washington, D. C. ; American 
Forestry Association. 



460 Proceedings oe the 

Grunsky, C. E., Washington, D. C. ; State of Cali- 
fornia. 

Gwinn, J. H., Pendleton, Ore. ; Oregon Wool Grow- 
ers' Association. 

Haas, L. G., Baltimore, Md. ; Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad. 

Hagenbarth, F. J., National Live Stock Association 
Denver, Colo. 

Haines, A. S., Westtown, Pa. ; Pennsylvania Forestry 
Association. 

Hale, Dr. Edward Everett, Washington, D. C. ; State 
of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Forestry Associa- 
tion, Appalachian Mountain Club. 

Hall, Edward Hagaman, New York city; Association 
for Protection of the Adirondacks. 

Hall, Geo. F., Chicago, 111. ; Chicago-Texas L. and 
L. Co. 

Hall, James B., Clay City, Ky. ; Beer Stock Manufac- 
turers' Association. 

Hall, Wm. L., Bureau of Forestry, Washington, D. C. ; 
Hawaii Forestry Service. 

Hansen, Prof. N. E., Agricultural College, Brookings, 
S. D. ; State of South Dakota. 

Happv, H. W., General Land Office, Washington, D. 

C. ' 

Harrison, W. F., Norfolk, Va. ; North Carolina Pine 

Association. 
Harvey, Wm. S., Phildelphia, Pa. ; Pennsylvania 

Forestry Association. 
Hawes, Austin F., State Forester, New Haven, Conn. 
Hawley, R. C, Amherst, Mass. ; American Forestry 

Association from Massachusetts. 
Hayes, C. W., U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, 

D. C. 

Hayes, R. P., Asheville, N. C. ; State of North Caro- 
lina. 



American Forest Congress 461 

Henry, Alfred J., Washington, D. C. ; American For- 
estry Association. 

Henry, H. D., Athens, Ohio; Union Association of 
Lumber Dealers. 

Herndon, T. H., General Land Office, Washington, 
D. C. 

Hightower, Clement, Capitan, N. M. ; Territory of 
New Mexico. 

Higgins, S. M., Forester, Cleveland-Clififs Iron Com- 
pany, Negaunee, Mich. 

Hinshaw, G. W., President Stone Mountain Railway 
Company, Winston, N. C. 

Hobbs, Jno, E., North Brunswick, Me. ; American 
Forestry Association. 

Hodge, Wm. C, Jr., Bureau of Forestry, W^ashington, 
D. C. 

Hodson, E. R., Washington, D. C. ; Iowa Park and 
Forestry Association. 

Holcombe, E. P., General Land Office, Washington, 
D. C. 

Holdredge, G. W., Chicago, III; Chicago, Burlington 
and Quincy Railway Company. 

Holmes, J. ; State of Connecticut. 

Holt, W. A., Oconto, Wis. ; Northwestern Hemlock 
Manufacturers' Association. 

Holter, Norman, Helena, Mont. ; State of Montana. 

Hoover, T. L., Carlisle, Pa. ; Pennsylvania Forestry 
Association. 

Hopkins, Dr. A. D., Washington, D. C. ; American 
Forestry Association. 

Hotchkiss, Geo. W., Chicago, 111. ; Lumber Secretaries' 
Bureau of Information. 

Hoyt, Colgate, New York city; Missouri, Kansas and 
Texas Railway system. 

Hutcheson, David, Congressional Library, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 



4^2 Proceedings of the 

Hutchinson, James, Randolph, Vt. ; Delegate-at-large. 

Imes, R. P., Washington, D. C, American Forestry 
Association. 

Irvin, Hon. Edw. A., Curwensville, Pa. ; State of Penn- 
sylvania. 

Irvine, Wm., Chippewa Falls, Wis. ; Mississippi Val- 
ley Lumber Association. 

Ivy, Thos. P., Conway, N. H. ; State of New Hamp- 
shire. 

Jackson, Luis, New York city; Erie Railroad Com- 
pany. 

Jastro, H. A., Bakersfield, Cal. ; Kern County Cattle 
Growers' Association. 

Jenks, Robt., Cleveland, Ohio; Lumbering. 

Jensen, A. W., Ephraim, Utah ; Forest Reserve Service. 

Johnson, L. E., Roanoke, Va., President Norfolk and 
Western Railway Company. 

Jones, Hunt, Louisville, Ky. ; State of Kentucky. 

Jones, H. H., Washington, D. C. ; General Land Office. 

Jones, William, Tacoma, Wash. ; Chamber of Com- 
merce. 

Justus, T. W., Baltimore, Md. ; Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad. 

Kalanianaole, Hon. Jonah K., Honolulu, Hawaii ; 
Territory of Hawaii. 

Kaul, Jno. L., Birmingham, Ala. ; Southern Lumber 
Manufacturers' Association. 

Keen, Miss Florence, Philadelphia, Pa. ; American 
Forestry Association. 

Keller, O. B., New York city ; American Forestry As- 
sociation from New York. 

Kellogg, J. C, Louisiana ; State of Louisiana. 

Kellogg, R. S., Fay, Kan. ; State of Kansas. 

Kelsey, Frederick W., Orange, N. J. ; American For- 
estry Association. 



American Forest Congress 463 

Kilkn, Wm. H., Milwaukee, Wis. ; Wisconsin Cen- 
tral Railway Company. 

Kinney, David G., Washington, D. C. ; Bureau of For- 
estry. 

Kittredge, G. W., Cincinnati, Ohio; Cleveland, Cin- 
cinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company. 

Kneeper, David, Harrisburg, Pa. ; Pennsylvania State 
Forestry Service. 

Koch, Elers, Washington, D. C. ; American Forestry 
Association. 

Lamb, Hon John, Richirlond, Va. ; State of Virginia. 

Langille, H. D., Santa Barbara, Cal. ; Forest Re- 
serve Service. 

Langworthy, C. F., Washington, D. C. ; American 
Forestry Association. 

Lazenby, Wm. R., Columbus, Ohio ; Ohio State For- 
estry Society. 

Leland, J. D., Washington, D. C. ; General Land Office. 

Lewis, W. H., Washington, D. C. ; General Land Of- 
fice. 

Lippincott, J. B., Washington, D. C. ; U. S. Geologi- 
cal Survey. 

Little, Wm. T., Perry, Okla. ; Anerican Forestry As- 
sociation from Oklahoma. 

Loring, Hon. C. M., Minneapolis, Minn. ; Minnesota 
Forestry Association. 

Luebkert, Otto, Washington, D. C. ; American For- 
estry Association. 

McAllaster, Birdsall, Omaha, Neb. ; Union Pacific 
Railway Company. 

MacNaughton, James, New York city; American So- 
ciety of Civic Engineers, New York Board of Trade 
and Transportation, and Association for Protection 
of the Adirondacks. 

McBee, Silas, New York city ; Delegate-at-large. 



464 Proceedings o^ the 

McCann, John A., Philadelphia, Pa. ; Editor National 

Coopers' Journal. 
McClure, R. C, Silver City, N. M.; Forest Reserve 

Service. 
McCoy, Wilbur, New York city; Atlantic Coast Line 

Railroad Company. 
McKeithan, D. T., South Carolina; State of South 

Carolina. 
McKinney, J. M., Washington, D. C. ; General Land 

Office. 
McLeod, N. W., St. Louis, Mo.; Southern Lumber 

Manufacturers' Association. 
Macbride, Thos. H,, Iowa City, Iowa. ; State of Iowa. 
McNeeley, E. J., Tacoma, Wash.; State of Washing- 
ton. 
McPhaul, John, Washington, D. C. ; General Land 

Office. 
McVean, M. J., Washington, D. C. ; General Land 

Office. 
Macey, J. T., Washington, D. C. ; General Land Office. 
Maffet, Miss Martha A., Wilkesbarre, Pa. ; American 

Forestry Association. 
Maher, N. D., Roanoke, Va. ; Norfolk and Western 

Railway. 
Manderson, Gen. Chas. F., Chicago, 111, ; Chicago, 

Burlington and Quincy Railway Company. 
Macoun, Prof. J. M., Canadian Geological Survey, 

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 
Manning, W. H., Boston, Mass. ; American Forestry 

Association. 
Marr, S. S., General Land Office, Washington, D. C. 
Marston, Roy L., Yale Forest School, New Haven, 

Conn. 
Mason, S. C, Berea, Ky. ; State of Kentucky. 
Mast, Wm. H., Halsey, Neb. ; State of Nebraska. 



American Forest Congress 465 

Mather, William G., Cleveland, Ohio; Cleveland 
Chamber of Commerce. 

Mathev/son, Dr. Arthur, Woodstock, Conn. ; Connecti- 
cut Forestry Association. 

Mattoon, W. R., Washington, D. C. ; American For- 
estry Association. 

Maxwell, Geo. H., Chicago, 111. ; National Irrigation 
Association and State of California. 

Mead, Elwood, Washington, D. C. ; Department of 
Agriculture. 

Meekham, H. S., Washington, D. C. ; American For- 
estry Association. 

Merriam, Dr. C. Hart, Geological Survey, Washington, 
D. C. ; Sierra Club and American Forestry Associa- 
tion. 

Merrill, H. G., American Forestry Association. 

Merry, Capt. J. F., Dubuque, Iowa; Illinois Central 
Railroad Company. 

Methudy, L., St. Louis, Mo. ; National Lumber Ex- 
porters' Association. 

Miller, Prof. Frank G., Lincoln, Neb. ; University of 
Nebraska. 

Miller, L. C, Washington, D. C. ; Bureau of Forestry. 

Miller, W. H., Madison, Ind. ; Retail Lumber Dealers' 
Association. 

Mitchell, Guy E., Washington, D. C. ; American For- 
estry Association. 

Moore, M. C, Milwaukee, Wis. ; Editor Packages. 

Mosle, M. A. ; Delegate-at-large. 

Mulford, Walter, New Haven, Conn. ; State of Con- 
necticut. 

Murphy, J. T., Washington, D. C. ; General Land Of- 
fice. 

Nelson, John M., Jr., Rider, Md. ; State of Maryland. 

Newhall, D. S., Philadelphia, Pa. ; Pennsylvania Rail- 
way Company. 



466 Proceedings of the 

Newell, F. H., U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, 
D. C. 

Norris, Jos. L., Leesburg, Va. ; State of Virginia 

Oak, Hon. Chas. E., Bangor, Me. ; State of Maine. 

Olmsted, F. E., Washington, D. C. ; Bureau of For- 
estry. 

Pack, Charles L., Lakewood, N. J. ; Cleveland Cham- 
ber of Commerce. 

Palmer, T. S., Washington, D. C. ; American Forestry 
Association. 

Pammel, Prof. L. Hj., Secretary Iowa Park and For- 
estry Association, Ames, Iowa. 

Parsons, Mrs. Henry, New York city ; American For- 
estry Association. 

Peavy, Geo. W., Washington, D. C. ; American For- 
estry Association. 

Penrose, Dr. Chas. B., Philadelphia, Pa. ; State of 
Pennsylvania. 

Perry, E. F., New York city; National Wholesale 
Lumber Dealers' Association. 

Peters, J. Girvin, Washington, D. C. ; American For- 
estry Association. 

Peyton, Miss J. S., General Land Office, Washington, 
D. C. 

Philbrick, S. W., Skowhegan, Me. ; State of Maine. 

Pinchot, Gififord, Bureau of Forestry, Washington, D. 
C. ; Bureau of Forestry, American Forestry Asso- 
ciation, Sierra Club, Society American Foresters, 
Society American Civil Engineers. 

Pinchot, James W., New York city ; New York Cham- 
ber of Commerce. 

Pollock, G. F., General Land Office, Washington, D. C. 

Pope, J. W., Atlanta, Ga. ; State of Georgia. 

Potter, A. F., Bureau of Forestry, Washington, D. C. 

Potter, H. G., General Land Office, Washington, D. C. 



American Forest Congress 467 

Price, Overton W., Bureau of Forestry, Washington, 
D. C. 

Purington, Pres. D. B., State University, Morgan- 
town, W. Va. ; State of West Virginia. 

Putnam, H. C, Eau Claire, Wis. ; Lumbering. 

Rane, Prof. F. Wm., Durham, N. H. ; New Hamp- 
shire College, Boston and Maine Railroad, State of 
New Hampshire. 

Reed, Franklin W., Washington, D. C. ; Society Amer- 
ican Foresters. 

Richards, J. T., Philadelphia, Pa. ; Pennsylvania Rail- 
way Company. 

Rinewalt, John M., Mt. Carroll, III; Delegate-at- 
large from Illinios. 

Ring, Hon. Edgar E., Forest Commissioner, Augusta, 
Me. 

Ross, D. M., Boise, Idaho ; U. S. Geological Survey. 

Ross, Norman M., Ottawa, Canada; Dominion For- 
est Service. 

Roth, Prof. Filibert, Ann Arbor, Mich. ; State of Michi- 
gan, University of Michigan. 

Rothrock, J. T., Secretary State Forestry Reservation 
Commission, Harrisburg, Pa. 

Russell, I. C, Washington, D. C. ; National Geographic 
Society. 

Russell, Jas. S., Boston, Mass. ; Massachusetts For- 
estry Association. 

Russell, F. B., Beer Stock Manufacturers' Association, 
Louisville, Ky. 

Satterlee, J. B., General Land Office, Washington, 
D. C. 

Savage, H. N., U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, 
D. C. 

Scaife, Marvin F., Pittsburg, Pa. ; Pennsylvania State 
Forestry Association. 



468 Prockkdings o^ the 

3chaperkotter, Jas. F., Philadelphia, Pa. ; Lehigh Val- 
ley Railroad system. 

Schenck, Dr. C. A., Biltmore, N. C. ; Biltmore For- 
estry School. 

Schwarz, G. Fred, New York city; American Fores- 
try Association from New York city. 

Scott, Chas. A., Halsey, Neb. ; State of Nebraska. 

Sebastian, Jon., Chicago, 111. ; Rock Island Railway 
system. 

See, Mrs. Horace, New York city ; American Forestry 
Association. 

Seeley, J. B., Virginia City, Mont. ; Forest Reserve 
Service. 

Shaw, A. C, General Land Office, Washington, D. C. 

Shaw, Eugene, Wisconsin Hardwood Lumbermen's 
Association, Eau Claire, Wis. ; Mississippi Valley 
Lumber Association. 

Sheller, D. B., Tacoma, Wash. ; Washington Forest 
Reserve Service. 

Sherfesse, W. F., Charleston, S. C. ; State of South 
Carolina. 

Shepardson, H. L., Baldwinville, Mass. ; National As- 
sociation of Box and Box Shook Manufacturers of 
United States. 

Sherman, W. F., General Land Office, V/ashington, 
D. C. 

Sherrard, Thos. H., Bureau of Forestry, Washington^ 
D. C. 

Shields, G. O., Editor and Manager Recreation; 
League of American Sportsmen, Delegate-at-large. 

Shoemaker, Samuel M., Stevenson, Md. ; State of 
Maryland. 

Silcox, F. E., Charleston, S. C. ; State of South Caro- 
lina. 

Silvester, Pres. R. W., Maryland Agricultural College, 



American Forest Congress 469 

College Park, Md. ; American Forestry Association 
from Maryland. 

Smith, G. O., U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, 
D. C. 

Smith, H. A., Bureau of Forestry, Washington, D. C. 

Smith, Geo. K., Secretary Southern Lumber Manu- 
facturers' Association, St. Louis, Mo. ; Southern 
Lumber Manufacturers' Association, National Lum- 
ber Manufacturers' Association, Western Pine Ship- 
pers' Association. 

Snyder, J. M., Bay City, Mich. ; American Forestry 
Association. 

Spring, Preston B., Easton, Md. ; State of Maryland. 

Spring, Prof. Samuel N., Orono, Me. ; University of 
Maine. 

Start, Edwin A., Boston, Mass. ; Massachusetts For- 
estry Association. 

Steele, Henry M., Macon, Ga. ; Central Georgia Rail- 
way Company. 

Sterling, E. A., Bureau of Forestry, Washington, D. C. 

Sheller, R. H., Tacoma, Wash. ; Forest Reserve Ser- 
vice. 

Stewart, Elihu, Forestry Branch, Department of In- 
terior, Ottawa, Ontario ; Canadian Forestry Asso- 
ciation. 

Stewart, Frank, Prescott, Ariz. ; Territory of Arizona. 

Strong, C. B., General Land Office, Washington, D. C. 

Stout, J. H., Menomonee, Wis. ; State of Wisconsin. 

Strong, Miss L. M., General Land Office, Washington, 
D. C. 

Sudworth, Geo. B., Bureau of Forestrv, Washington, 
D. C. 

Suter, H. M., Washington, D. C. ; Editor Forestry 
and Irrigation, 

Tennille, A. F., Washington, D. C. ; The American 

Lumberman. 

p 



470 Proceedings oi' the 

Thayer, Hon. Samuel R., Minneapolis, Minn. ; Minne- 
sota State Forestry Association. 

Thomas, E. B., Los Angeles, Cal. ; Forest Reserve 
Service. 

Tompkins, H. J., Washington, D. C. ; Bureau of Fores- 
try. 

Totten, Mrs. S. G., Washington, D. C. ; General Land 
Office. 

Toumey, Prof. J. W., New Haven, Conn. ; Yale Forest 
School. 

Tower, G. E., Washington, D. C. ; American Forestry 
Association. 

Tremaine, Morris, Buffalo, N. Y. ; National Whole- 
sale Lumber Dealers* Association. 

Underwood, Geo. F., New York city; Water Storage 
and Manufacturing Association. 

Von Schrenk, Dr. Hermann, Washington, D. C. ; Bu- 
reau of Forestry. 

Van Aiken, C. M., New York city; National Slack 
Cooperage Association. 

Vreeland, Robert, Frankfort, Ky. ; State of Kentucky. 

Wadsworth, W. A., Genesee, N. Y. ; State of New 
York. 

Waite, Mrs. C. V., Roggen, Colo. ; State of Colorado. 

Walcott, Dr. Chas. D., Washington, D. C. ; U. S. Geo- 
logical Survey. 

Walker, F. B., Washington, D. C. ; General Land Of- 
fice. 

Walsh, Thos. F., Washington, D. C. ; Denver Chamber 
of Commerce. 

Wantland, C. E., Denver, Colo. ; State of Colorado. 

Ware, Miss Mary Lee, Boston, Mass.; Massachusetts 
Forestry Association. 

Webster, Jr., N. E., Washington, D. C. ; U. S. Recla- 
mation Service. 



American Fore:st Congress 471 

Weed, W. H'., Washington, D. C; U. S. Geological 
Survey. 

Wells, Geo. T., Drifton, Pa. ; American Forestry As- 
sociation from Pennsylvania. 

Weyerhaeuser, Jr., Fred E., St. Paul, Minn. ; Weyer- 
haeuser Lumber Company and Mississippi Valley 
Lum.berman's Association. 

Wheeler, Mrs. C. H., Boston, Mass. ; American Fores- 
try Association. 

White, J. B., Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Lumber 
Manufacturers' Association. 

White, J. W., Portsmouth, Va. ; Seaboard Air Line 
Railway. 

Whittlesey, Geo. P., Washington, D. C. ; American 
Forestry Association. 

White, Aubrey, Toronto, Canada ; Canada. 

White, H. D., Enid, Okla. ; Territory of Oklahoma. 

White, W. H., Warren City, Mich. ; Hardwood Manu- 
facturers' Association. 

White, T. Brook, Portland, Ore. ; State of Oregon. 

Wiggins, Vice-Chancellor B. L., Sewanee, Tenn. ; Uni- 
versity of the South. 

Williams, A. S., Berlin, N. H. ; Berlin Mills Company. 

Williams, F. B., Patterson, La.; National Lumber 
Manufacturers' Association. 

Williams, Irvin C, Harrisburg, Pa. ; Forestry Academy 
and Pennsylvania Forestry Association. 

Williams, Mrs. L. P., Minneapolis, Minn.; State of 
Minnesota. 

Williams, Hon. M. M., Little Falls, Minn.; State of 
Minnesota. 

Wilms, William, Chicago, 111.; Hardwood Manufac- 
turers' Association. 

Wilson, H. M., Washington, D. C. ; U. S. Geological 
Survey and American Society of Civil Engineers. 



472 Proceedings of the 

Winchester, A. H., New Orleans, La. ; Lumber Trade 
Journal. 

Winchester, Col. A. H., Buckhannon, W. Va. ; State of 
West Virginia. 

Wirt, Geo. H., Harrisburg, Pa.; Forestry Academy 
and Pennsylvania Forestry Association. 

Witten, J. W., Washington, D. C; General Land 
Office. 

Wood, Richard, Philadelphia, Pa. ; Pennsylvania 
Forestry Association. 

Woodruff, Geo. W., Washington, D. C.; Bureau of 
Forestry. 

Worden, F. E., Oshkosh, Wis. ; Northwestern Hem- 
lock Manufacturers' Association. 

Ziegler, E. A., Washington, D. C., Saline Valley Tele- 
prone Company. 



THE AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIA- 
TION 
President. HON. JAMES WILSON 

Secretary of Agriculture 

The American Forestry Association was organized 
in 1882, and incorporated in January, 1897. It now has 
nearly three thousand members, residents of every 
State in the Union, Canada, and foreign countries. 
It has at all times been active in promoting measures 
tending toward the proper utilization of the forests 
and their protection from destruction by fires and 
wasteful use. 

The objects of this Association are to promote: 

1. A business-like and conservative use and treat- 
ment of the forest resources of this country ; 

2. The advancement of legislation tending to this 
end, both in the States and the Congress of the 
United States, the inauguration of forest admin- 
istration by the Federal Government and by the 
States ; and the extension of sound forestry by all 
proper methods ; 

3. The diffusion of knowledge regarding the conser- 
vation, management, and renewal of forests, the 
proper utilization of their products, methods of 
reforestation of waste lands, and the planting of 
trees. 

The Association desires and needs as members all 
who are interested in promoting the objects for which 
it is organized — all who realize the importance of us- 
ing the national resources of the country in such a man- 



474 Proceedings of the 

ner as not to exhaust them, or to work ruin to other 
interests. In particular it appeals to owners of wood- 
lands, to lumbermen and foresters, as well as to engi- 
neers, professional, and business men who have to do 
with wood and its manifold uses, and to persons con- 
cerned in the conservation of water supplies for irri- 
gation or other purposes. 

The American Forestry Association holds annual and 
special meetings at different places in the country for 
the discussion and exchange of ideas, and to stimulate 
interest in its objects. Forestry and Irrigation, the 
magazine of authority in its special field, is the official 
organ of the Association, and is sent free to every 
member monthly. Its list of contributors includes prac- 
tically all persons prominent in forest work in the 
United States, making it alone worth the cost of 
annual membership in the Association. 

The annual dues are, for regular members, $2.00, 
for sustaining members, $25.00; life membership is 
$100, with no further dues. Any person contributing 
$1,000 to the funds of the Association shall be a 
Patron. 

H. M. SuTER, Secretary. 
Address : P. O. Box 356, Washington, D. C. 



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